Four Seneca Middle School students turned up the heat as they used their superb cooking skills to secure a first-place finish at the eighth annual Junior Iron Chef competition held at Whole Foods Market in Lake Grove. 

For the third consecutive year, Seneca students finished first among countless junior chefs from across Long Island. All middle and high school-age students came to the competition with a prepared recipe and cooked their dish in the allotted one-hour cook time. 

The educational event encourages students to learn and execute the culinary skills necessary to prepare dishes essential for a healthy lifestyle. The competition promotes the use of local food to support farmers and the environment. Students are encouraged to create new healthy vegetarian or vegan-based options that can be easily implemented into the school cafeteria menu. Each recipe was judged on taste, presentation, creativity, use of local ingredients, use of USDA ingredients, healthy choices and cafeteria readiness. 

Each team worked closely with its family and consumer science teachers to develop recipes and practiced for many hours leading up to the contest. Team Golden Girls was named the first-place finisher after presenting its winning dish, the Jardin Burrito – “jardin” translates to “garden” in Spanish. It was filled with eggs, guacamole, Monterey jack cheese, peppers, onions, black beans and corn and was paired with a delicious mango salsa. 

In addition, Team Greek Goddesses placed third with a Greek omelet coined Demeter’s Dish that was filled with potatoes and paired with tzatziki sauce. Placing in fourth was the final Seneca team, the Slice and Dicers, which received a special award for its teamwork, order and professionalism. 

“Congratulations to all of our students for their hard work and dedication,” District Chairperson for Family and Consumer Science Mary Louise Faller said. “It was a great day for Sachem.”