Canada's Smartest Kitchen also 'really cool,' say students

Two groups of Grade 8 students in Charlottetown got to try out some of the gear in Canada's Smartest Kitchen to finish off their school year.

The Queen Charlotte Intermediate students were the first to pilot a new project in partnership with the kitchen at the Culinary Institute of Canada at Holland College.

The students were tasked with creating a dish featuring potatoes, and their recipes had to be healthy and marketable.

Students then had to present their dishes to a panel of judges.

"We're pretty lucky — it's only two groups that won at school, we're the only ones that got to come and cook with Canada's Smartest Kitchen people," said student Shaeya Thibodeau.

"There's lots of big things we've never used before, so with the new tools we got to see, it's really cool."

Thibodeau said participating in the project taught her a lot about how to handle food, and where food comes from.

Opportunities for leadership

Emilee Sorrey, marketing and communications coordinator for Canada's Smartest Kitchen, said the project was about more than just creating recipes.

"You see them interact with food in a different way than they do in their other studies: it's very hands-on, it's very interactive," said Sorrey.

The students learned about food, nutrition, and food product development.

Sorrey said the work included many opportunities for students to take on leadership roles.

"They could stand up and be the leader in the kitchen, or they could take that role to develop that marketing plan, or take that role to go out and look what's in the retail options," she said.

"There's all kinds of ways the students could step up in their group, so it was really inspiring to watch them take those leadership roles."

Sorrey said Canada's Smartest Kitchen hopes to partner with more schools in the fall.

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