LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Some Lake County middle school students got the chance to show off their culinary skills in the Windy Hill Middle School Food Truck Wars.
Parents, family, and friends got to attend the showcase, with each ticket being $1. Most food items were between $2-$5. All money raised goes back into the school’s culinary arts program.
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“It’s a real pressure cooker, no pun intended out here, because they have to be able to adapt. We have a lot more people than we thought they’d have here so they’re running and making more batches,” Principal William Roberts said.
Culinary arts teacher Kimberly Breeding said the eighth-grade advanced students started preparing in January, developing their concept for their mocks trucks as well as menus. All items had to be original ideas. One group made smoothie bombs, with boba pearls inside a hollow chocolate ball.
“Each year gets more interesting with what the kids want to make,” Breeding said. “It’s all these little juice caviars inside a chocolate cup and when you bit into it just bursts in your mouth with flavor, so that is a really cool concept that I haven’t seen anywhere,”
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As part of the challenge, students presented their ideas to administrators “Shark Tank” style, to try to win sponsors.
“So not only did they talk about what they’re making, but they had samples,” Roberts said. “We ask them what’s the true cost of what you’re making versus what you’re going to sell it for.”
Each “food truck” had a voting station and the winners will be announced at an end of the year dinner.