The scent of sizzling steak mixed with sweet desserts drifted through the room as culinary arts students prepared their entries for the Best Teen Chef contest Tuesday, Jan. 25.

Senior Jasmine Slaughter entered a favorite family pasta and seafood recipe, Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti Aglio Olio. The dish was a favorite with judges as well, earning Slaughter first place entree for her class period.

“I was pretty surprised I won because there were some other good dishes there,” Slaughter said. “It’s one of my dad’s favorite recipes, and we always make it to impress our guests.”

Students had to write a recipe to use for the contest, buy the ingredients, prepare the dishes, photograph the finished work, and the present them to a judge. With 90 minutes to prepare ingredients on Monday and 90 minutes to cook the dish on Tuesday, Slaughter said she felt the pressure.

“We had a special order to present, and my dish took a long time to prepare, so I was running behind,” Slaughter said. “I was also making bacon wrapped asparagus that wasn’t cooking in the oven, and I had to put it under the broiler.”

Junior Jacob Davis also won the entrée’ division for his class period. Davis prepared and entered a steak taco.

“It sounded good,” Davis said. “I wanted to cook something using the grill.”

Senior  Johnny Williams entered Plantation Supper, a casserole, into the competition.

“I wanted to do something different so I cooked a casserole,” Williams said. “It wasn’t meat, and it was still attractive.”

Williams said he took the class with hopes of impressing the ladies, but ended up gaining a passion for cooking.