The Lincoln Southwest culinary teams will be competing at State on Wednesday, Feb. 8 in Hastings. 

The first team is comprised of seniors Wren Poessnecker, Max Sueper, Taj’a Williams and sophomore Marley Patcher. The second team is comprised of juniors Abby Steele, Riya Danga and freshman Mikayla Vauiso. 

“We’re being judged in three sections. The first section is the floor, and that’s when we’re actually cooking,” Poessnecker said. “There are more subcategories like knife skills and sanitation. The second section is decoration, so how the product looks and the third category is the taste of our food.” 

The teams came up with their own recipes that fell under the categories of a starter, a main dish and a desert. The first team will be competing using their recipes for a cucumber and tomato salad, a New Orleans jambalaya and a honey cornbread with a raspberry and honey icing. The second team will be competing with lineas potatoes and green beans, a corn and beet salad with a cherry and walnut vinaigrette accompanied with pork scallops and apples and a dessert pastry with cream and strawberry coulis as their recipes.

“We’ve put in lots of hours going through our recipes and practicing them,” Steele said. “I’m nervous about the competition and not getting everything done in time. But I think if we use our resources at school and trust each other we’re going to be okay.”

If either or both of the teams place in the top three then they will go to another competition comprised of the top three groups from the state. The first place champion of that competition will get the opportunity to represent Nebraska at the national competition.