D.W. Davis student Lucan Volmy’s Mahatma Rice dish, ‘Pina Colada Rolled Rice Pudding with Chocolate Topping’, and his Robin Hood Flour dish, ‘Stuffed Curried Bake’, were good enough to earn him the 23rd Annual Junior Young Chef Champion New Providence title, and a berth to compete in the All Islands Final for the overall title of National Young Chef Champion. Volmy, 15, a student at D.W. Davis Junior School, also won the award for best flour dish.

Anatol Rodgers ninth grade student, Kenya Richmond, cooked her way to second place with her ‘Rice and Lobster Souffle’ Mahatma Rice dish, and her Robin Hood Flour dish, ‘Tropical Coconut Crumble Tart with Papaya Sauce’. Richmond will also compete in the All Islands Final scheduled for Wednesday, March 18 for the Young Chef title.

Third place went to the youngest competitor in the competition, Labrano McPhee, 13, a student at A. F. Adderley School who prepared a ‘Pina Colada Rice’ for his Mahatma Rice dish and ‘Spicy Coconut Seafood Crepe’ for his Robin Hood Flour Dish.

T.A. Thompson School’s Prince Rolle finished fourth with his ‘Combination Seafood Pilaf’ Mahatma Rice dish and his ‘Guava Pound Cake’ Robin Hood Flour dish.

Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort’s executive chef Seanette Cooper, was one of four people judging the competition, along with Devian Maycock, College of the Bahamas Culinary Institute; Carla Barr, Anatol Rodgers Senior School teacher; and Celeste Smith, who represented Olives at Atlantis. Cooper said she was impressed by what the children were able to produce which she described as “out of the box”.

“He [Volmy] did the ‘Stuffed Curried Bake’ and that was really good. He made a dough out of rice flour, made the seafood curry mixture, rolled it in and fried it. His dessert was also good. As a professional for the plate you would say too much, but for a kid you would say wow. His plate presentation was nice and fun, and you would look at it and say it would not taste as good as it did.”

Cooper said competitions like the Young Chef that she judges annually is something that she looks forward to every year and that gets her excited.

“I look forward every year to this competition because it excites me to see the young kids so enthused in the profession that I adore and is my life. It’s so interesting to see that the kids have the passion that I do and that they’re getting into it so young. In my day there were competitions but we weren’t pushed into it. But now these kids are doing it big and they’re coming up with things that we didn’t even dream about back then, and these kids are in junior school … you had kids doing soufflés. And they’re so much into it that they’re seeking help from professionals who take time out to give them insight. You can read about their passion in their profiles. It’s really good,” she said.

The Young Chef competition is sponsored by Mahatma Rice and Robin Hood Flour, distributed by Asa H. Pritchard.

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