Junior iron chefs slice, dice their way to victory

Aaron Meriwether had made this meal so many times — the sautéed chicken, the broccoli, the rice pilaf, with shrimp cocktail to start.

But anything can go wrong in the Teen Chef competition. So Meriwether stood in the waiting room, his face flushed red, his chef's hat tilted to the side.

"I'm about to lose my mind," the Bothell teen said.

Eleven high-school seniors from the region competed on Saturday for a chance at a scholarship to the culinary program at the Art Institute of Seattle. They came from as far away as San Diego and as close as Bothell to cut, cook, arrange and clean in front of a panel of judges — some instructors at the school, others working in the culinary world. The students described the event as grueling but gratifying.

Every year, the Art Institutes across the country put out a call for teen chefs who want to attend their local schools. They select contestants based on an essay, a sample menu, sample recipes and photos of the dishes, as well as a high-school transcript and letter of recommendation.

Carl Warych, 17, of Corvallis, Mont., won the contest, and he will advance to next month's national Art Institutes competition in Florida, where he will compete against 20 other teens for more than $200,000 in scholarships.

The top three students at nationals will win full tuition to the Art Institute of their choice. There are 20 schools across the country, with culinary programs that cost around $35,000.

The students began their day at 8 a.m., while many of their friends were still asleep at home. The first task was a knife-skills contest, with onions, tomatoes, parsley, garlic and mushrooms as the material. The teenagers stood quietly at their stations, vegetables beside them, waiting for the signal to cut, when suddenly a stack of pots fell from its place.

"Everybody OK?" said chef instructor Ian Mackay, after the clatter. "Everybody's OK."

The students raised their knives and started to cut. The biggest challenge that came to Mackay's mind was the tomato. It had to sit in hot water until the skin softened, he said — but the students could not let it cook.

"It could be the onion," he said. "You're trying with a round object to get a square cut."

The students were judged mostly on precision and sanitation during the 30-minute session.

Then came the chicken dinner, cooked over the course of an hour and a half. The judging criteria for that meal ranged from taste to the temperature of the plates.

As they worked, the students were on display, with windows looking into the kitchen.

"It takes a lot of courage to do this," Mackay said. "I know a lot of seasoned chefs who wouldn't touch it."

The crowd was at its peak during the knife-cutting session. But Tiffany McMahan would not be swayed by that attention. Too much was at stake.

"I have to make sure I'm not cutting off my fingers," said McMahan, of Montesano, Grays Harbor County.

McMahan has been cooking since she was a child, mostly for her grandparents, who are her guardians. She makes their favorite meals, from French toast for breakfast to elk stew at night.

Her goal is to enroll in the Art Institute of Seattle's 22-month program, with help from grants and loans.

McMahan came to the Saturday event with a mentor she calls Mom. Cindy Hedlund hugged the girl when she came running up to her, anxious before the judges gave their feedback on her food.

"It was really pretty, it was," Hedlund said. "I wanted to bite it."

One by one, the students were called to the kitchen to perform. In the waiting room, the young chefs talked about the lure of cooking.

Alison Forgaard, of Oroville, Okanogan County, said she makes all kinds of creations from food. Take, for example, her "mouse" cookies: chocolate-covered cherries with the stem as the tail, a Hershey's kiss for the head and slices of almonds for ears.

"I like the chicken stuff she made up," said her mother, Shannon Winn. "I could eat that all the time."

She was referring to one of Forgaard's specialties: chicken sautéed in a sauce made of tomatoes, onions, garlic and white wine.

Forgaard had her mother and boyfriend there to support her on Saturday. She was the only contestant who had never seen a prawn before.

As the young chefs talked downstairs, Meriwether was bent over his shrimp cocktail upstairs in the kitchen, his fingers trembling as he worked. His teacher, Joann Bushnell, watched him and worried. He was assigned the worst possible spot, the window a few inches from his face.

"He feels like he's on TV, with everyone staring at him," said Bushnell, a culinary-arts teacher at Bothell High School. "Poor guy."

By the end of the day, Meriwether would walk away with third place in the contest. He and Alex Albertson, from Lacey, Thurston County, earned a chance to compete at the national competition along with the first-place winner.

But shortly after 11 a.m., Meriwether looked frustrated and frazzled, trying to make it all fit. Other supporters came and went from the window. Bushnell would not leave until the boy came out the door.

"I did my best," he said.

Cara Solomon: 206-464-2024 or csolomon@seattletimes.com