By Amy Filippone, Dept. of Parks & Recreation
The Community Kitchen on the third floor of the Church Street Recreation Center has been busy. Chef Katie Sklarow has kept kids cooking with COVID-19 safety precautions in place including daily health checks and smaller class sizes (the maximum is eight students). While taste and smell might be dampened by masks, her students have cooked, plated and baked wonderful, prize-worthy creations.
Back by popular demand were two “Chopped” competitions and a round of “Cupcake Wars.” Recent winners for Chopped 1 were Olivia Barnes and Julia Blong. For Chopped 2, the winners were Saanvi Joshi and Zoe Dasgupta. Cupcake Wars champion was Kaelyn Kownatsky. The competitions were fierce on the last day of camp with competitors having to utilize three mystery basket ingredients.
Chopped champions were judged on a two course meal, Barnes and Blong took home the prize by preparing a first course of carrot butter sweetened with maple, toasted baguette and cucumber spears (mystery basket ingredients were carrot and cucumber). For their second course, the pair prepared mozzarella chicken with caprese and roasted potatoes (mystery basket ingredients were chicken, basil, potatoes, tomatoes).
Chopped 2 Champions, Joshi and Dasgupta prepared a first course of Taco Bites (mystery basket ingredients of ground beef, tortillas, tomatoes). Their second course was oven roasted chicken with roasted veggies and lemon (mystery basket items were chicken, beets, lemon and potatoes).
Our first summer Cupcake Wars first place went to Kaelyn Kownatsky. Kaelyn won with a delicious “Smores Cupcake” using mystery basket items of graham crackers, Nutella and maple syrup. For the final touch, Kaelyn whipped marshmallow into her Italian buttercream. In previous Cupcake Wars, Kaelyn had taken second place twice and is a very accomplished baker.
Upcoming culinary four-day camps include European dessert camp Aug. 24 to Aug. 27. The European dessert camp will feature éclairs, trio of crème brûlée, cannolis and Mille-feuille. Around the world cuisines and American cuisines will both taking place during the week of Aug. 17 to Aug. 20, featuring fabulous culinary creations from around the world and American favorites.
Please visit www.moorestownrec.com for full details on these programs and to register.
