By Eddie Rodriguez, Reporter

Senior Katee Werrline was surprised when her culinary team won one of three Golden Spatulas in the Iron Chef competition.

“I was really surprised, it was totally unexpected but it was a good feeling,” said Werrline, “thinking of a recipe and making it was an interesting experience.”

Werrline and her partner, senior Acalia Cleaver, had created a ballpark cookie crafted to look like a corndog, which impressed the judges.

“Our cookie was a spin off on a Rice Krispy treat. We added craisins and chocolate chips, coated it in a peanut-butter frosting and put a stick in it, making it look like a corndog,” Werrline said.

Werrline and Cleaver were among three sets of winners in the annual Culinary Arts Iron Chef competition, which was judged by faculty members from a range of fields. This year’s competition had a carnival theme, and judges named the most visually impressive, best in taste and overall best cookie in second and third block Culinary I classes.

Senior Ben White and Senior Austin Henkelman won the Golden Spatula for presentation in second block. Senior Heather Wells,   Senior Victoria Hermannson and Senior Katie Tolan won the Golden Spatula for both categories in third block.

Physics teacher Patrick Carter, who was one of the judges, said that he liked seeing students in a different setting and how they made the cookie match the theme.

“While judging, we had to take into consideration the taste and presentation and how well they converted the cookie into the carnival theme,” he said. “All the cookies were neat. A few that stood out to me were the garbage can cookies, the cookies that looked like cheese sticks, and the lemon cookies served on a lemon peel.”

Werrline and Cleaver presented their cookies as if they were selling corndogs at a baseball game; the two wore Cubs jerseys and brought them into the judges on a homemade vendor tray.

“The judges really liked it, especially Mr. Carriere,” Werrline said.

Other judges included librarian Lorna Code, who said the competition was a great experience.

“While I was judging, I tried to take the three categories of taste, presentation and creativity, but I also took into consideration the verbal presentation of the group not just the visual aspect,” Code said. “Some of my favorite cookies were the cotton candy cookie and the corndog cookie. The corndog cookie had the best taste though.”