Representing the local high schools are members Christina Escobedo, Academy High School; Bayley Irby, Bishop High School; Sharla Irby, Kaufer High School; Ellis Meyer, Kaufer High School; and Luke Waddingham, H.M. King High School. The Outdoor Country 4-H Club representing Kleberg County won the first annual Texas State 4-H Roundup Food Challenge recently.

This team represented all four high schools in the area and members included Christina Escobedo, Academy High; Bayley Irby, Bishop High School; Sharla Irby, Kaufer High School; Ellis Meyer, Kaufer High School; and Luke Waddingham, H.M. King High School.

The Food Challenge is a brand new 4-H event where five members on each team are given a challenge similar to that of the Food Network show “Iron Chef”.

They are randomly given a food category including Main Dish, Fruits and Vegetables, Breads and Cereals or Nutritious Snacks.

They are then given a bag of groceries for one of the four categories and the team then has forty minutes to assemble ingredients, make up a recipe along with a name for their dish, figure cost analysis, nutrition facts, including fats, carbohydrates, calories, serving size, etc.

Within the forty minutes, they must cook, plate their dish complete with creative garnishing, cleanup their area and present their dish to the judges with a five-minute interview.

During the five minutes, the teams discuss food safety, garnishing, nutrition, food pyramid, etc.

This team made history by winning their Main Dish category, returning to the finale to compete against the other three categories, winning the finale and being the first winners of the 4-H Food Challenge in the state of Texas.