By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
Young students will show off their culinary chops during a “Top Chef” program at Hopewell Elementary School.
“It’s a friendly cooking competition modeled after the popular TV show,” said David Friedrich, principal at the school.
The 15 children in third, fourth and fifth grades enrolled in the five-week after-school course will start cooking on Thursday, Feb. 11.Each session, which begins at 3:45 p.m., will consist a brief demonstration and tasting led by a guest chef from a nearby restaurant, followed by a competition among students and “the crowning of the week’s top chef,” Mr. Friedrich said.
The classes will take place inside the school cafeteria or the teachers’ lounge, depending on the competition challenge, he said.
“We were looking for someone (from outside the school) to do a cooking class, but we had a hard time doing it, so we figured ‘why not do it ourselves,’ ” the principal said. “Fortunately we’ve got some incredible support from local chefs that is making this happen.”
Guest chefs and competition judges will include Antimo Lovine, chef and owner at Antimo’s Italian Kitchen in Hopewell, who will demonstrate making flatbreads.
Chris Voigtsberger, chef and owner at Acacia in Lawrenceville, along with math and science teacher leader Katie Santini, will present a demonstration called “The Science of Cooking Breakfast.”
“It will be about some of the chemistry behind it,” the principal said.
Brian Kirby, sous chef at Winberie’s in Princeton, will show students how to make homemade gourmet mac and cheese.
“We have some pretty cool themes that appeal to students,” Mr. Friedrich said. “It’s not heating up food in a microwave. We’re talking about authentic cooking from scratch. It’s going to be the real deal for kids.”
“We have 15 students who are really excited about this,” he said. “To me, that’s mission accomplished.”
The program is so popular, Mr. Friedrich said, that once registration opened for the Top Chef program, the course filled up in 10 minutes.
“We (currently) have a waiting list of about 40 students,” Mr. Friedrich said.
The $100 per-student cost includes all the ingredients needed. Each student gets a personalized apron with his or her name on it.
Vegetables and other produce used as ingredients are to be locally grown and organic, when possible.
“At our school, we really focus on healthy eating,” Mr. Friedrich said. “This year we unveiled a new organic menu in our cafeteria that received a great deal of positive feedback from the community. It fits in with our efforts to nurture the whole child here.”
Any additional money collected and not used from tuition fees will be donated to the East Trenton Center, an organization that provides programs and services to meet the basic needs of both children and adults in the East Trenton community.
“The center is an organization that’s near and dear to our hearts at Hopewell Elementary. We’ve partnered closely with them for year and years,” Mr. Friedrich said. “Each month we donate clothing and baby items to them.”
“They’re a really important partner and we value them tremendously,” he said.
