First Prize Winner is Nicole Caceres of John Marshall High School, Los Angeles, for Black Bean Mole Stew
NEW YORK, March 13, 2012—Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), the national leader providing scholarships, education, and career opportunities in the culinary arts to underserved youth and Meatless Monday, an initiative of the nonprofit The Monday Campaigns, which provides healthy and environmentally friendly information and recipes, are proud to announce today the winners of the 2012 C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest. First Prize Winner and recipient of a $5,000 scholarship is Nicole Caceres of John Marshall High School, Los Angeles for creating Black Bean Mole Stew.
Nicole Caceres intends to take her culinary education to a very artistic place. Her passions include pastry, cake design, sugar sculpture, and overall aesthetic pleasures of food. She maintains a 3.3 GPA and participates in the student-run Cafe Blue on her campus.
“I use food as a medium to express my artistic vision just like a painter might use watercolors,”says Nicole.
“I am so proud to be part of the C-CAP program. It offers amazing opportunities for my students. C-CAP is providing a strong platform for my students as they begin their education and a career-long resource for support. The C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest has been a wonderful example of the type of educational enhancement the program offers,” says C-CAP teacher Andi Phillips.
Thousands of C-CAP high school seniors became head chefs in their classrooms and were introduced to the Meatless Monday public health campaign encouraging everyone to start each week with a healthy meal. While working with their culinary arts teachers to concoct the original meatless entree, the teen chefs were encouraged to use the recipe contest to explore new fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes.
“We’re excited to be working with C-CAP, encouraging aspiring chefs to develop imaginative recipes that can be offered as alternatives on the menu, while simultaneously showing them that meatless meals can be both healthy and delicious,” says Sid Lerner, founder and chairman of The Monday Campaigns.
Each C-CAP school was invited to submit only one student recipe and photo. Seven finalists were selected and presented to a distinguished panel of judges. Three scholarships will be awarded this spring at the C-CAP Cooking Competitions for Scholarships Awards in the hometown of the winning student chefs. The first prize winner will receive $5,000, the second prize winner will receive $3,000, and the third place winner will receive $2,000.
Nicole will be competing in the C-CAP Los Angeles Cooking Competition for Scholarships on May 18 and she will receive her scholarship at the Awards ceremony on May 21.
“Through this contest, student chefs were guided by their teachers on recipe writing and development and were able to showcase their talent creating exciting meatless recipes,” says C-CAP president Susan Robbins. “C-CAP has teamed up with The Monday Campaigns to give high school seniors the opportunity for scholarships while promoting healthy eating in high schools and communities throughout the nation.”
The recipe submissions were judged on originality, flavor, healthfulness, ease of preparation, and writing ability. The recipe contest winners are from Los Angeles, California; Chesapeake, VA (Hampton Roads, Virginia); and Chicago, Illinois. The judges evaluating the submissions for the first annual C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest were Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet; Laurie David and Kristen Uhrenholdt, co-authors of The Family Dinner; Ellie Krieger, host of the Food Network’s hit show Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, now airing on the Cooking Channel, and USA Today columnist; Joey Lee, food editor of www.meatlessmonday.com; Hillary Mickle, founder of FOODILY, “the world’s largest recipe network”’ Ron Taylor, executive chef of Brand Aromatics, and Scott Uehlein, corporate chef of Canyon Ranch.
1st prize: $5,000 C-CAP Meatless Monday Scholarship, Nicole Caceres, John Marshall High School, Los Angeles
Black Bean Mole Stew
Yield: 6 1-cup portions
Ingredients:
6 poblano chilies
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red onion, small diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups tomato juice
1 can (15 ounce) vegetable broth
1 cup of quinoa
2 (15 ounce) cans S&W Black Beans, drained
¼ cup almond butter
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1-2 tablespoons chipotle in adobo, minced
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
For Garnish:
Grated cheddar cheese
1 avocado
Sour cream
Pomegranate seeds
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use tongs or a kitchen fork to hold poblanos over the open flame on the range. Roast poblano peppers until the skins are blistered. Peel, seed and devein the peppers. Dice the poblano flesh.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium flame. Add onions and diced poblanos. Saute until the onions are soft. Add garlic, cumin, & cinnamon. Continue to sauté about 3 more minutes until very fragrant. Add tomato juice, vegetable stock, quinoa and beans. Simmer, stirring frequently, about 20-25 minutes, until quinoa is tender. A white “halo” around the quinoa grains is a sign that they are done cooking. Add almond butter, chocolate, chipotle, & cilantro. Stir well to incorporate. Garnish with cheese, avocado, sour cream, and/or pomegranate seeds.
Contact:
Joyce Appelman
C-CAP
250 West 57th Street
Suite 2015
New York, NY 10107
516.482.1016
greatappel@aol.com
Cherry Dumaual
The Monday Campaigns
215 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212.991.1056
cdumaual@mondaycampaigns.org
About C-CAP
Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) works with public schools across the country to prepare underserved high school students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry. A national nonprofit organization founded in 1990 by well-known culinary educator and author, Richard Grausman, C-CAP manages the largest independent culinary scholarship program in the United States and has awarded high school students $34 million in scholarships and donated $2.7 million worth of supplies and equipment to classrooms. C-CAP provides training and curriculum enrichment programs including: teacher training; scholarships and cooking competitions; job shadows, job training, internships, and career advising; college advising and college 101 workshop; and product donations. C-CAP operates programs in seven locations: New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Philadelphia; Hampton Roads, VA; Prince George’s County, MD; and statewide in Arizona. For more information about C-CAP, visit www.ccapinc.org.
About Meatless Monday
Meatless Monday is a nonprofit public health initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The goal of the campaign is to cut saturated fat intake, which in turn reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Going meatless one day a week can also decrease our carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel. Since its launch in 2003, Meatless Monday has become an international movement with support from celebrities, universities and organizations around the world. For more information about Meatless Monday, visit www.meatlessmonday.com.
Acknowledgment: Thank you to S&W Premium Beans for their product contribution to the schools.
