Petite Iron Chefs Get Creative with Chocolate

The day after Valentine’s Day, kids went head-to-head at the to see whose cuisine reigned supreme.

During the library’s first-ever Iron Chef Competition, four girls let their inner chefs out and used a variety of chocolate products to make original creations.

The kids were judged on taste, presentation and originality. They had 45 minutes to come up with three different dishes.

Participant Lisa McCabe took this task seriously. She was zooming from station to station and then to and from the microwave, melting chocolate.

McCabe, who partnered up with her buddy Juliana Jones, had a strategy to execute the three dishes in time.

“I think we should try to semi-finish our two dishes and then start working on our other one. We know what we're making, but we don’t know our sauces,“ said McCabe as she poured a chocolate applesauce over a pizzelle.

Sisters Julia and Vanessa Vice paired up, but each created three different chocolate dishes.

Even though they were working separately, taste buds must run in the family.  Unbeknownst to each other, both girls used Twinkies and colored beads. Julia covered the Twinkie with a white marshmallow spread and Vanessa covered it with chocolate.

The girls started from scratch with the following items: rock chocolates, Ghirardelli chocolate, Oreos, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, berries, ice cream, cinnamon hearts, wafer cookies, thin mints and whipped cream.

The judges were David Conklin, library director, Merry Jane Benner, children’s librarian and Nancy Fiore, clerk. They took their time and tasted each and every creation.

In the end, the golden spoons were awarded to Juliana Jones and Lisa McCabe.

Catherine Schmidt, children’s librarian, said she got the Iron Chef competition idea from different libraries around the county.

She decided chocolate as a theme because it was the day after Valentine’s Day and the library is not equipped with stoves.

“I am having fun. It’s fun to watch them putting together and see them experiment and melting,” she said.

The Vice girls' mother, Nicole Vice, said it was like a science or life-skills class for her children since they are homeschooled. In fact, all four girls in the competition are home schooled.

“We come to the library all the time and we read all the bulletins and we thought this would be fun,” said Nicole Vice.

Schmidt said she had so much fun shopping and planning the competition, she may hold another in the summer.