A Paul Kane student won a full-ride scholarship to NAIT this month in recognition of her succotash skills.
Paul Kane Grade 12 student Kestra Daum was awarded the inaugural Stanley Townsend Scholarship March 17 during the award ceremony for the 2025 High School Culinary Challenge. The event, which happened March 8 at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), saw 16 teams from high schools throughout the Edmonton region compete to see who could craft the finest three-course meal in just four hours.
Participants in the challenge can also apply for full-ride scholarships to the NAIT culinary arts program provided by the challenge’s organizers, the Canadian Culinary Fund. Three (or occasionally four) scholarships are awarded each challenge.
The fund now has enough money to offer at least three scholarships in perpetuity, said fund chair Andrew Hess. To mark this occasion, the fund has decided to name those scholarships after the challenge’s three founders: Jan Anderson, Simon Smotkowicz, and Stanley Townsend.
Townsend, a retired chair of the NAIT culinary arts program and a St. Albert resident, said this was a great honour, and reflected on how far the challenge had come in 18 years.
“I can remember the first competition we had, and it was pretty much pure pandemonium,” he said, with cupboard doors left open, smoke billowing from pans and stoves, cuts, burns, and competitors on the verge of tears.
“Now you go to a competition and it’s like a smooth, oiled machine,” he continued, with professionalism, communication, and teamwork everywhere — traits that have permeated the region and made Edmonton a culinary destination.
Sufferin’ succotash?
Daum said she entered this year’s challenge at the suggestion of Paul Kane culinary arts instructor Randy Kozak. She and her teammates Lin Gagne and Cadence McBride had four hours to make corn bread, mashed potatoes, mulligatawny soup, a flourless chocolate cake with strawberry compote and crème anglaise, and pork ribs with succotash (boiled lentils with corn and red peppers).
Daum said she and her teammates spent many hours and weekends over the last month practising these dishes in the kitchen at Paul Kane prior to the competition. She helped prepare all the dishes but was the lead on the potatoes and succotash.
Daum said Paul Kane started off strong in the competition by serving its soup on time, adding turmeric to it for a vibrant orange colour and spiral-shaped parmesan crackers for a unique garnish.
Disaster struck during dessert.
“We noticed our cake wasn’t cooking like it was supposed to,” Daum said, so they called a judge over to check the oven’s temperature.
“When the [judge] put a temperature checker specifically made for ovens in there, it fell through the grates into the cake that was cooking below it,” she said, making a chunk of it unusable.
St. Joseph Catholic High won the gold medal in this year’s challenge, with Dr. Anne Anderson High taking the silver and Bev Facey High claiming bronze.
Daum said the challenge was a stressful, but fun experience.
“Even if we didn’t make the podium, we did a pretty good job.”
Townsend said the challenge gives students a chance to express their vision as chefs and challenge themselves to do better. Many winners, such as Hess and Paul Kane alumnus Peter Keith, go on to become professional chefs.
“They’re our future. They’re our rising stars.”
Daum said she was happy to have won this scholarship, as it would make it much easier for her to pursue her passion for the culinary arts. She encouraged all aspiring chefs to try competing in the High School Culinary Challenge.
“You’re going to learn to make some pretty epic food,” she said, and it will look great on your resumé.
Visit highschoolculinarychallenge.ca for more on the challenge.
