Worthington High School students gather around a wok as they prepare their dish for the Schwan’s Culinary Skills Challenge at the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University. Worthington team members included Moo Bleh, Ehnee Po, Three Sa, and Johira Lopez Morales.

MARSHALL — It wasn’t a typical field trip.

Many of the area high school students gathered at Southwest Minnesota State University on Wednesday morning were busy donning chef’s coats, unpacking utensils and preparing ingredients.

It was all part of the build-up to competitive events at the 2023 Schwan’s Culinary Skills Challenge. Students from around southwest Minnesota and South Dakota put their cooking, baking and decorating talents to the test.

“It was a pretty interesting experience,” said Marshall High School student Zoey Ayala of taking part in the cake decorating competition.

“It was kind of nerve-wracking at first, but it’s pretty fun,” said fellow MHS student Jamileth Hernandez.

The Southwest West Central Service Cooperative has hosted the Culinary Skills Challenge since 2005, and Schwan’s has been the event’s corporate sponsor since 2014. Students competing in the Culinary event also had a chance to win SMSU scholarships.

A total of 250 students from 14 area schools took part in this year’s event, said Gail Polejewski, of SWWC.

We’ve got some new schools we never had before,” she said.

In addition to taking part in competitive events, students could also attend seminars on a variety of culinary topics. Taher, Inc., corporate chef John Sugimura kicked off the program with a live demonstration, making pork gyoza, or Japanese dumplings.

“The art of Japanese food is making great food, with great technique and great ingredients,” Sugimura told students. He said his goal as a chef was to stay true to his grandmother’s recipes and to Japanese culinary traditions. “These dumplings really represent everything I do with food.”

Two students from the crowd, Sander Brunk and Ayden St. Pierre, even got to assist Sugimura in preparing dumplings.

“It was pretty cool. I’ve never cooked dumplings before,” said Brunk, a student from Adrian High School.

“I learned so much from cooking them,” St. Pierre said of the experience.

As the gyoza were steaming, Sugimura showed them how to add water on the surface of the pan, and not on the dumplings, he said.

St. Pierre was also competing with a team of Lakeview High School seniors in the culinary competition. Team members said they planned to make a sesame chicken dish for the competition.

It took “weeks of preparation” to get ready, said Juan Espinoza.

“We had to perfect our recipe,” St. Pierre said.

The team also had to practice working together to prepare the dish within the time limit. Fellow team members Lincoln Vogel and Sheldon Louwagie said they all had different jobs within the team, from Vogel acting as head chef, to team members cutting and preparing vegetables.

Hernandez and Ayala said the decorating competition had a calmer atmosphere than they expected.

“I thought there would be more people watching you,” Hernandez said. But seeing there wasn’t a big crowd around helped to take the extra pressure off, she said.

“It was really calm and relaxed,” Ayala said.

It turned out her work at the competition would pay off – she took first place for her icing skills.

Culinary competition:

1st place – Worthington (Team members: Moo Bleh, Ehnee Po, Three Sa, Johira Lopez Morales)

2nd place – BOLD (Team members: Maverick Kaufenberg, Ethan Nere, Mason Uhlencamp, Stevie McMath)

3rd place – Montevideo (Team members: Liliana Bridsall, Liam Doll, Caitlyn Harlow, Kaitlin Sulier)

Baking science:

1st place – Kamryn Novak, RTR

2nd place – Hilina Gebreegziabher, Worthington

3rd place – Daniel Groebner, Springfield

Cake decorating – icing:

1st place – Zoey Ayala, Marshall

2nd place – Ashlyn Mangel, Lac qui Parle Valley

3rd place – Ella Smidt, Worthington

Cake decorating – cupcakes:

1st place – Aleiya Schilling, Harrisburg, S.D.

2nd place – Taylor Wood, Lac qui Parle Valley

3rd place – Chloe Dolly, Springfield

Cake decorating – multi-layer:

1st place – Grace Pauling, Montevideo

2nd place – Alexis Rausch, Harrisburg, S.D.

Food art:

1st place – Alexandria Ritesman, Harrisburg, S.D.

2nd place – Avery Bohms, Harrisburg, S.D.

3rd place – Valery Pablo, Worthington

Knife skills:

1st place – Alexandria Ritesman, Harrisburg, S.D.

2nd place – Chloe Dolly, Springfield

3rd place – Camrin King, Fairmont

Menu design:

1st place – Miguel Urquia, Worthington

2nd place – Ashley Muller, Kayday Werner, Fairmont

3rd place – Ash Maday, Fairmont

Place setting:

1st place – Edwen Ventura, Worthington

2nd place – Emily Soto, Worthington

3rd place – Edwin Morales, Worthington