LI kids cook up best mac and cheese in state with…
It’s NOT just like mother used to make.
A crew of Long Island eighth grade boys beat out 260 entries to earn the title of best mac’n’cheese recipe in the state — with ingredients like candy corn, Muenster cheese and garlic toast breadcrumbs.
Eleven Southampton Intermediate School kids in the last-period cooking membership also used mozzarella, cheddar, bacon and shredded chicken under a pie crust for their award-winning and tremendous fragrant pot-pie MAC.
A bunch of East End Long Island center schoolers is the cream of the crop, as their one-of-a-kind mac and cheese recipe was hailed best in New York over 260 other youth entries.
“Security guards came into the classroom because they could smell it down the hall, everybody loved it,” said Charles Holle, one of the self-proclaimed “Mac Island Mariners.”
“We didn’t expect to win necessarily, but we knew that it had a chance,” he said of the recipe that took first place in Cornell University’s Mac & Cheese Challenge, netting the kids a $300 prize for artistic tutorial endeavors.
The close-knit group made the “spontaneous” determination to take part when the competition began last September, with little to no real expertise.
“They were very excited and really wanted to try it out,” trainer Christina Duryea told The Post.
Lack of publicity didn’t matter as the buddies have been hungry for a win when Duryea told them about the competition on day one.
Charles Holle, who is a half of the self-proclaimed “Mac Island Mariners,” exclaimed, “Security guards came into the classroom because they could smell it down the hall, everybody loved it.” Dennis A. Clark for NY Post
“The next week, we were already working on recipes, and it just kind of all fell into place,” added teammate Cole Collins.
Their job, per the competitors, was “to develop their perfect macaroni & cheese recipe” and submit it on paper to judges, who would independently put together the dish based on the scholars’ cooking suggestions.
“We had no clue what the competition was doing because it was private, so we only knew what we were doing,” Collins added.
Duryea’s college students knew from the get-go that they’d to stand out before the late November deadline, so, without hesitation, they adopted an orthodox method, utilizing barbecue and buffalo sauces.
“We actually made buffalo mac and cheese balls,” said crew member Christopher Glorioso.
“So we did those, and they’re pretty good — but we thought we could do better.”
The gang bared down like they’d to impress Gordon Ramsay, fought through artistic variations, and designated set obligations as they finalized their successful garlic mac and cheese chicken pot pie.
Collins said that once the boys noticed school rave about the recipe, they knew it was a real winner for the center faculty division.
Duryea then took issues one step additional and introduced her bunch on a area journey to close by Mecox Bay Dairy Farm, where her father works, for a detailed tour of how cheese is made.
“We got to really actually understand the agricultural practices,” Holle said.
“That actually helped us understand a lot more about the recipe.”
The group received the Cornell University’s Mac & Cheese Challenge as they have been rewarded the $300 prize for artistic tutorial endeavors. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post
After a few more weeks of tweaking toward perfection and creating a regionally targeted advertising and marketing marketing campaign with a fishing theme as a nod to LI, it grew to become a ready recreation, as the kids had knots in their stomachs for nearly a month after submitting.
The successful discover shocked everybody from Duryea to the kids themselves and was the best Christmas break current they might have requested for, they said.
“It’s not just luck, but it was so surprising when we got back that victory letter,” scholar Read Wilutis added of the latest good news.
Duryea said she was most impressed by how the little cooks realized to collaborate — and how their teamwork yielded a product superior to that of a whole bunch of their friends across the Empire State.
And the Mac Island Mariners might not be completed yet.
“I haven’t told them yet, but there is an ice cream challenge,” Duryea said.
“We’ll see if we’re going to do that or not.”
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