Hannah Skalicky, thought she had little chance of winning the national “Healthy Lunchtime Challenge” cooking contest. The Fort Collins 10-year-old learned about the contest a few days before entries were due, and the competition was intense with more than 1,200 entries.
“I kinda rushed a bit since the deadline was in four days,” said the 6th grader. “I threw together a dish. You had to make it up yourself.”
Each day she’d race home to ask her parents if they’d heard anything yet, but there was no news. Until the day she came home after day camp and her parents announced they had something to show her.
“One held a piece of paper that said YOU, and the other had a piece of paper that said WON! with a picture of the White House,” she said. “I was really happy that I won, and kind of amazed.”
The prize is a July 14 trip to the White House and a meal with First Lady Michelle Obama, followed by a visit to the White House Kitchen Garden.
It’s the fifth year of the “Healthy Lunchtime Challenge,” a national recipe contest that promotes healthy cooking and eating as part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative, and includes such partners as the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Last year’s Colorado winner was Rain Adams of Denver.
The winning recipes from this year’s 56 kids — representing all U.S. states, five territories and the District of Columbia — will be available for free via a downloadable and printable e-cookbook starting July 14 on the PBS website.
Some have a theme of patriotic Americana, like the Super Stars and Stripes Salmon Patty from Idaho’s 8-year-old winner and the American Flag Ravioli in Creamy Garden Sauce from Utah’s winner.
Other kids used trendy or sophisticated ingredients, like the Quinoa-Crusted Katsu Curry with Cauliflower Rice from Guam’s young chef, or have catchy names, like Peace in the Middle East Soup and Salad from the Rhode Island winner.
For Hannah, who created Hannah’s Sweet and Savory Chicken and Peaches, inspiration came from the Palisade peaches that she’s helped her dad sell each year at the Fort Collins Peach Festival. She started at age 3 helping pack peaches into boxes and eventually graduated to flipping peach pancakes.
Her friend’s mom, Sapna Von Reich , who was born in India and is now a plant-based food educator in Fort Collins, served as inspiration.
“I was at their house for dinner one time and there was a lot of curry and cumin involved in the dish,” said Hannah. “It was kind of spicy, and I wasn’t used to the spice. But I wanted to try curry because I don’t cook with it a lot.”
So she added curry to her contest recipe, using own her time-tested experimental method for creating new dishes.
“I do a lot of cooking and while I’m doing it, I taste things,” she said. “If they don’t taste right, you can always start over or add another ingredient to make it taste right.”
Heading into the Fourth of July weekend, Hannah reflected on her upcoming trip to the White House. She’s studied U.S. history in school, particularly the American Revolution, which is celebrated each Independence Day.
“We learned about the Revolutionary War…and what it’s famous for, and about all the monuments and the Capitol,” she said.
Hannah visited Washington, D.C., last fall with her family, but they didn’t have time to tour the White House, so this will be her first visit.
“I get to meet the first lady, and I’m really excited about that,” she said. “For me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
