Autumn Ward placed second in Kaiser University Culinary Regional Middle School Division Competition.

Three Lafayette High School culinary students talked about their recent trip to Kaiser University in Tallahassee and taking part in a cooking competition at a recent school board meeting.

LHS Culinary Instructor Susan Morgan, who teaches 9-12, held an in-house competition to determine the most eligible or best to participate in Kaiser’s regional competition.

Although she gave the option for her students to participate, the competition wasn’t school-related.

“Actually, four of the students decided to send their recipes in to the competition in Tallahassee,” said Morgan. “Out of the four, three of the high school students actually were chosen to compete in Tallahassee.”

Morgan explained that the middle school student wasn’t her student, but since the competition didn’t involve the actual culinary program at LHS, the middle schooler entered the competition, too.

Josh Templin won second place in the classroom competition and went on to regionals and won first place.

“He was named the Ambassador Chef of Northwest Florida,” said Morgan.

She then introduced Jasmine Hallock who won second place in the student classroom contest and went on to win second place in the high school division in Tallahassee.

Eighth grader Autumn Ward won second place in the regional student cook off in the middle school division at Kaiser.

Morgan said the LHS culinary program is fashioned through the Pro Start Program and affiliated with the Restaurant and Lodging Association. She said when a program uses the RLA curriculum, they are offered free workshops for the students.

“We actually signed up and took the students to their very first culinary workshop,” said Morgan. “It was a lot of fun and they learned a lot.”