Gourmet ‘poutine’ grilled cheese, burgers, and different desserts are just a taste of what was dished up at Notre Dame High School Thursday, as part of their annual ‘Food Truck Wars’ event.
Students in the foods program were split into groups, and created their own food truck-style dishes.
“I think that it’s a great way to show off our skills and what we’ve learned in our foods classes,” said Grade 12 student Kenzie Lasante, who was serving all sorts of different flavours of French macrons.
The high school’s gathering area, where the event was held, was packed with long lines of people waiting to sink their teeth into what their fellow students created.
“I like the thrill of it, I like the competition,” said student Aubrey Uy. She and a few of her classmates were dishing up Filipino food, including something called Kwek Kwek. Uy explained that it’s a deep fried quail egg, that’s a popular street food in the Philippines.
The fast and furious competition gave students more than on-the-fly cooking experience too.
Foods instructor and organizer Jeff LeRouge said: “They basically have to build a business for a day, menu concepts, pricing, product testing and marketing.”
He explained that it’s not votes that would determine which team wins; it is how much money they made. “Very carefully we’ve tracked what their ingredients cost, they all had a budget and we’ll look and see who has the most profit.”
And that profit goes towards the school’s Grad Services Project, which upcoming graduates organize every year.
This year, the young adults are raising money for an RCMP Victim Services Trauma Dog to be brought to Red Deer.
“It’s a good cause, because the trauma dog actually helps a lot of people cope with their situation, and it helps and guides them,” said Uy.
The goal is to raise $40,000 by the end of the year.
More than $4,000 was raised at Food Truck Wars, and Uy’s team with their ‘Food Truck’ called Askigs won the competition, raising nearly $1,500.
