Eat Local Food: Up for a Challenge? Enter the 2013 Michigan Junior Chef Competition

The Challenge is back! The Michigan Junior Chef Competition has returned for 2013. The official rules have been posted, so get your teams ready! The deadline? Team applications and recipes must be e-mailed by March 26, 2013. Here are the official rules, from the Michigan Junior Chef website:

The goal of the Michigan Junior Chef Competition is to provide youth participants hands-on cooking experience and knowledge of healthy food choices. It is made up of two parts, a Recipe Contest and a Cook-off Competition. Recipes for the Recipe Contest must include fresh, local, and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) foods (federal commodity foods) and should be practical and easy for school food service operations to offer as part of their meal programs. Finalists from the Recipe Contest will be eligible to prepare their meals on-site at the Cook-off Competition at Michigan State University on May 9, 2013. Top recipes will be shared with schools throughout the state in a Michigan Junior Chef Cookbook.

I. Teams

Teams should consist of 3-4 students in grades 7-12 and 1-2 adults. Youth team members must be enrolled in Michigan schools and may be any combination of 7-12th graders.
Each team must have at least 1 adult coach to participate in team meetings/practice and to chaperone the team to the Cook-off Competition, if eligible. The coach can be a school food service director, teacher, other school employee, or parent/guardian.
Adult coaches are not allowed to cook with the students during the Cook-off Competition, but they may provide guidance in cooking techniques and food safety.

Teams must submit a Team Application

and Recipe Entry Form

for the Recipe Contest by March 26^th, 2013. Finalists will be announced by April 11^th, 2013.

For complete rules and more information, including videos of past competitions, please visit the Michigan Junior Chef website. Sponsors of this year's competition include: