Future chefs cook healthy meals in competition

Washougal — Washougal School District elementary school students battled it out at Sodexo’s Future Chefs Challenge on March 15 at Washougal High School. The theme for this year’s cook-off was Healthy Comfort Food. Students across the district submitted recipes and based on originality, taste, presentation and use of healthy ingredients, 10 were selected to participate in the challenge. The finalists prepared and presented their dishes with help from the high school’s culinary students and Sodexo staff. Gause Elementary School fifth-grader Bryce Condon finished first for his “Sensational Summer Squash Casserole.” The other competing chefs were Gause students Alexis Boyd, Kayla Ruth and Hannah St. Hilaire, Ashana Sanders and Gabriel Ryan and Baylee Smiley from Cape Horn-Skye Elementary School, and Hathaway Elementary School’s Kate Kesler and Joselyn Guajardo. Lily Sanders from Gause was named a finalist, but couldn’t attend the event.