For those who don’t know, my wife Debbie and I have been hosting free cooking classes for local children here in La Manzanilla and Los Ingenios for almost 20 years.

At the end of each season, we hold a Cooking Competition between the two groups.

This year it was the Older Girls Class vs. Younger Girls Class, in an exciting race to make a full dinner and dessert in under one hour.

We invited two judges from local restaurants to choose a winning team: Nallely Romero - Chef/Owner of 'Imix' Restaurant, and Gonzalo - Chef/Owner of 'Jesus, Maria, & Jose' Restaurant.

Debbie did an amazingly complicated job of preparing two kitchens with the same ingredients and cooking equipment, so both teams started evenly.

Each team had six recipes to make: Chicken Cordon Bleu Rolled with Ham & Swiss Cheese, Crispy Fried Potatoes with Garlic & Herbs, Carrots Glazed with Honey & Butter, White Cheese Sauce for the Chicken, Banana Muffins, Cream Cheese Icing for the muffins.

The girls worked amazingly well together and both teams created beautiful and delicious dishes. In the final taste test, the judges determined that both teams were equally excellent, and declared a tie!

They chose one person on each team to be the Most Valuable Person: for the older girls, it was Ariana, and for the younger girls it was Zuria. Congratulations!

Prizes of cooking utensils were given to everyone! Thanks to the judges Nallely Romero and Gonzalo, and Ilene Harris for donating prizes and helping.

See you next season!