Once the secret ingredient was revealed in Amy Storlie’s Iron Chef cooking class for seventh- and eighth- graders at the Charter School of Morgan Hill, her students immediately began scouring cookbooks and recipe ideas online.
The mystery ingredient this week was bell peppers – 26 of them in a variety of red, green and orange hues – picked from the school’s bountiful on-campus garden.
“We use as much as we can from our garden,” explained Storlie, who does do a bit of shopping at nearby grocery stores to stock the school pantry with spices, cooking oils and other complimentary ingredients students may need for their culinary concoctions.
Located at 9530 Monterey Road, the Charter School of Morgan Hill opened in 2001 and caters to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Ever since Storlie, a nutrition and cooking teacher, took over the Iron Chef class six years ago, it’s popularity has sprouted alongside the school’s one-acre garden tended to by students taking agricultural courses, teachers and volunteer parents.
Save for the frequent use of bacon – which isn’t too expensive – most of the recipes Storlie assigns her students are vegetarian, which helps keep costs down.
The class, modeled after the popular “Iron Chef America” show on TV’s Food Network, is held twice a week and always involves a wildcard component such as eggplant, apples, tomatoes or pumpkin, to name a few past examples.
Three Iron Chef classes meet twice a week inside the campus’ multi-purpose room that includes a small kitchen area in the back corner. The class runs for 12 weeks during the trimester, with 43 students currently broken into three different class periods.
“My goal is for them to have confidence in the kitchen, so when they go home, they are able to make themselves something that’s good for them – and it’s easy and fun,” Storlie said.
Storlie also teaches a sixth grade nutrition class that covers food safety, sanitation, table etiquette and nutritional facts; plus a “Get Fit” physical education class for fourth-graders.
During the Oct. 3 Iron Chef, students exhibited gastronomic gusto to rival Food Network stars like Rachel Ray, Alton Brown and Giada De Laurentiis.
“I love cooking,” said eighth-grader Lucas Noble, 13, whose culinary group was whipping up a potato hash to present to classmates at the end of the 56-minute period. “I’ve been cooking since I was little, so when I learned they had a cooking class, I was super excited.”
That sentiment permeated the multipurpose room like a good aroma wafting from an oven.
Storlie said there is a 15-student capacity for each class – although she allowed two extras in one period this fall – and the elective must fit in the student’s schedule.
“I had this class last year and it was really fun so I signed up again,” said eighth-grader PJ Rochon, 13.
Classmate Camille Ivie, 13, also in eighth grade, could not get into the class last school year, so she was thrilled to have the elective on her schedule this fall.
When the student chefs arrive, they put on an apron, sanitize their work areas and grab their group’s ingredients – some has been prepped the previous class period. They then get to work, busily chopping, dicing and mincing.
During the Oct. 3 class, Madi Oty, 13, turned up the heat under a sautee pan and threw in her finely chopped potatoes.
“I want to get them brown and crisp,” explained Oty.
Storlie breaks students into cooking groups of three or four, they come up with a recipe and outline a management plan that has to be approved. She makes sure each member has a specific role in the preparation and cooking process.
Storlie evaluates the recipe to see if it is appropriate for her students as far as skill level, cost and time. After a Tuesday prep day, students return Thursday to cook before presenting it to the class. The most popular part is tasting. The following week, students choose the winning dish.
“The teachers love it because we take the extras into the teachers’ lounge,” said Storlie, who earlier that day brought some bell pepper nachos made by students into the front office for staff and faculty.
Salvadore Mendoza, 13, started his cooking explorations at home helping his mother prepare for the family dinner. Now, the eighth-grader takes snapshots of all the student recipes each week, so he can go home and make them.
“I mostly like to bake,” said Mendoza, who has been expanding his repertoire with each secret ingredient challenge in Storlie’s class. “I thought (bell peppers) would be a really good ingredient because there are so many recipes that use bell peppers.”
During the Oct. 3 class, Mendoza’s group was one of two concocting a potato hash – the opposing group choosing to add bacon to their recipe. Meanwhile, seventh-grader Jared Mandrell, 12, and his classmates, Carter Tetherow and Maddie Laisure, both 13, prepared an omelette with eggs laid from the chickens that can been seen wandering about the garden area.
“We wanted to do something a little different, something that we haven’t tried before,” explained Mandrell, who, like the rest of his classmates, spent the first couple of weeks learning how to properly cut, mince and chop herbs and vegetables for Tuesday’s prep day.
The other groups from Storlie’s second and third Iron Chef classes used the bell pepper secret ingredient to concoct a sausage bell pepper pesto pasta dish, bell pepper nachos and a bell pepper on bruschetta appetizer.
“The idea of them trying new things” is exactly what Storlie wants her students to come away with. “If they make it themselves, they are more likely to try it.”
