This year’s annual Soup Cook-Off was held on Tuesday, January 9th at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center where over 20 teams from both junior and senior divisions cooked, prepped, and served their own soup dish.
Cooking began at 3:00 pm, when teams gathered all their ingredients to create the soups. “Our soup, we like to call ‘Tropical Paradise,’ and is made with pineapples, cherries, strawberries, and a lot of different fruits and juices,” said Lauren Pozega, a culinary arts student and cook-off contestant. “This is our ‘sunshine soup,’” said Victoria Atkinson, Pozega’s teammate.
There were many different types of soups ranging from many different soup categories. The categories were cream-base, seafood, red meat, poultry, vegetarian, and other, all of which were judged by a selected group of three judges, one of which was Dr. Michael Martirano, Superintendent of Schools.
“That was delicious,” said Martirano after tasting one of the team’s soups. The judges gave feedback to each team as they taste tested each soup presented to them. The judges scored each soup on originality, taste, and quality. Pozega and Atkinson were pleased after presenting their soup to the judges. “They told me that it was good to see something different,” said Pozega.
Not only were there awards given to the best soup of each category by the judges, but also the public voted from their own tasting for the People’s Choice Award. For the voting of this award, the public is able to sample each soup and whichever they enjoyed or wanted to see win, dropped a quarter into a cup next to the soup to count as one vote. The public was encouraged to vote as many times as they wanted.
All proceeds collected form this event went to SkillsUSA, an organization that sends students on certain trips to provide educational experiences for students to benefit their targeted career path. Last year, 20 students from the Tech. Center were sent on one of these trips.
Robert Taylor, founder of the Soup Cook-Off is pleased with the way things have turned out. “Originally, we would ride motorcycles and look for places with good soup,” said Taylor. “We thought it would be a good idea to try and have an annual event where aspiring cooks can come and show off their soup. Not only that but it gives people a chance to eat the soup so everyone benefits.”
To see the first annual Soup Cook-Off click here.