Parkwood High culinary students and middle and high JROTC cadets joined forces to participate in a Chopped Challenge using military MRE (Meals Ready to Eat). The iconic Food Network program Chopped served as inspiration for the challenge. Sergeant First Class (SFC) Rane Cooke, a Union County liaison for the North Carolina Army National Guard, organized the event.
The friendly competition had two goals. It allowed culinary students to become more aware of the opportunities in the National Guard, and JROTC cadets had the chance to learn some culinary skills. The bonus goal was to have fun.
MREs are self-contained complete meal packages. Inside each bag is an entree with a variety of other foods, drink items and typically a flameless ration heater. SFC Cooke gave a brief lesson on the chemistry of how military MREs work. After being divided into mixed teams, the students received an MRE and access to a table of fresh ingredients to create their signature dish. They had to make the main course and an optional appetizer or dessert within 30 minutes that looked and tasted good.
A few of the dish ideas included making a dessert as the main entree, lettuce taco wraps, a meat and rice bowl and a peanut butter surprise. Some teams used everything included in the MRE, while others chose specific items. Every team was focused and communicating. The room quickly began to fill with mouth-watering aromas.
Chayton Taoa, a 12th-grade culinary student, was confident about the dish his team was preparing. His team quickly came up with an idea and began the prep work.
"We got the beef taco MRE. It's easy and simple, but we want to add more freshness to it with cilantro, onions and other ingredients. We still have to make it look nice, too."
Abigail Carpenter, an 11th-grade JROTC cadet, was focused on her team's task.
"I take a food and nutrition class here, so I know how this works. I've also used MREs before. I have experience with both. Now, I have to merge them. We got the vegetable crumble with taco sauce. We added cheese to it and are trying to figure out how to incorporate it into the main dish and how to plate it to make it look good. We are grabbing some garnish to add it, too."
Senior Zachary Loseke said making the dish in 30 minutes was the most challenging. Even with the time constraint, his team was adding a dessert.
"We are making an apple sauce cake with a chocolate drizzle and strawberries," said Zachary, a culinary student. "The time makes it a bit stressful. I enjoy cooking a lot so it's fun to challenge yourself and use different ingredients. It helps you see what else you can cook with some creativity."
The students enjoyed working with each other because each person brought different expertise to the teams. After the time was up, each group brought up their dishes. They went into detail about what they made, how they made it and then got to taste it. The students did so well that no clear-cut winner was named. The win was that everyone got to eat some tasty and creative dishes.
At the conclusion, SFC Cooke spoke to the students about the benefits of the National Guard. One of the benefits he mentioned was assistance programs to help pay tuition costs and other educational expenses.
SFC Cooke also told students about The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) offered to high school and post-secondary students as part of the ASVAB Career Exploration Program. It provides tools to help students learn more about career exploration and planning, in both the civilian and military worlds of work.
"This is my favorite program to bring into schools. It allows the JROTC and the CTE culinary students to exchange program information. It also helps me spread information about the National Guard," said SFC Cooke. "The biggest thing is they don't know what they don't know. For the National Guard, our mission is to educate them so they can get 100 percent of college paid for, they stay local and work one weekend a month. My bachelor's is in business administration and it was paid for through the National Guard. It's good for students to know all of their options."
01/03/2023
