Eleanor Nery and Rory Garnett, both students in the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center Culinary Program, with their second-place plaque in the Innovative Local Foods Cooking Challenge. Their dish was a Maine grains pearl black barley vegetable stir-fry, featuring local blueberry-infused Heiwa tofu and farm fresh vegetables, finished with a Maine maple cider sauce.

LA junior Eleanor Nery and her partner Rory Garnett of Morse High School, both students in the culinary program at Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, placed second at the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension Innovative Local Foods Cooking Challenge. Eleanor received a special Judges Choice award for her overall presence in the competition and thought process.

The Local Food Challenge, which takes place at the University of Maine’s Orono campus each spring, gives students a basket of Maine-made and Maine-grown foods. After some planning time, students are given 90 minutes to create an innovative dish that is judged by Maine food professionals.

Nery and Garnett’s dish was a Maine grains pearl black barley vegetable stir-fry, featuring local blueberry-infused Heiwa tofu and farm fresh vegetables, finished with a Maine maple cider sauce.

Cherie Scott, founder of Mumbai to Maine, which produces gourmet simmer sauces inspired by the Indian spices of her childhood, and also an LA parent, was one of the judges. She was very impressed with Nery and Barnett. “They were an incredibly composed duo, I gave them a nearly perfect score. They really leveraged an incredible pantry of Maine’s bounty!”

“Before the competition, we were sent an idea of the assortment of ingredients that would be provided to the competitors under the required categories which were: a cooked protein, a starch, one or more vegetables either cooked or raw, and a sauce,” said Nery. “After we received that list, our instructor bought a variety of different ingredients for us to experiment with. The idea of the vegetarian barley stir-fry derived from my farro dish from the inner class competition held in order to decide which two students would be participants representing Bath Tech.

“Rory and I worked together to create an entree that was strictly local-based as we continued to experiment with different ingredients. The blueberry and maple-infused tofu was inspired by a dish that one of our classmates, Harry, created. I thought that this sweet tofu creation would pair quite well with the savory stir-fry, for a contrast of flavors.… It was truly amazing to see the plethora of local foods that we were given the opportunity to incorporate into our dish. We had an hour and fifteen minutes to complete the dish so it was most time efficient to walk in with a secured plan.”

Nery, who recently won first prize at the statewide SkillsUSA wedding cake decorating competition, plans to work as a sous chef at the River House restaurant in Damariscotta this summer.

A news story about the event is at this link.