SIOUX CITY | Hazel Giron stood at a stove with one hand on her hip and a spatula in the other.
"Why is this so low?" she asked herself staring at the beaten eggs in the pan that hadn't even started to harden.
Her teammates in kitchen No. 3 were busy chopping peppers, tossing fruit and ice into a blender and scurrying back and forth to the pantry for more ingredients. A long table set with silverware sat empty in the middle of the room amid the commotion.
The scene was just as chaotic in three adjoining small kitchens where more than a dozen eighth-graders were concocting a breakfast drink and dish using the following staple ingredients: spinach, eggs, canned pineapple chunks and pomegranate juice. As on the Food Network reality TV show "Chopped," the students would present their culinary creations to a panel of judges 20 minutes later. The clock was ticking.
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"You've got 10 minutes!" family and consumer science teacher Allison Wagner yelled.
"Oh my gosh!" panicked students screeched.
Wagner, who debuted the "Chopped" exercise with one of her four eighth- grade classes last year, said students don't do a lot of cooking in the class otherwise. They're expected to use the knowledge they glean from cooking with their families at home to successfully complete the challenge.
"It's kind of great to see what comes out," she said.
Kitchen No. 3 added spinach, cheese and bell pepper to their omelet, which was now starting to fall apart and brown slightly. Plan B -- scrambled eggs.
"I'm scared to try this," Carter Olhausen admitted.
Madison Burge laughed uncontrollably when Giron took two halves of a bagel and placed them face down on the flat top electric stove.
"I do this at home all the time," she reassured.
"We are not toasting bagels on a stove," Wagner informed Giron.
"We don't have a toaster," she responded.
"Get a pan," Wagner said.
Four minutes left.
Blenders whirred as a charred smell hung in the air. It was time to begin plating.
"I don't know where to go," Marae Honson, a student in kitchen No. 1 mumbled as she circled near the back pantry.
One minute.
"Make sure your plate looks pretty," Wagner warned.
Kitchen No. 3 placed their scrambled eggs between two bagel halves and topped their fruit smoothies with a dollop of whipped cream.
The students huddled around the long table, where judges Chris Poeckes and Mike Tokarczyk, both English teachers, now sat with teacher's aide Deb Leigh.
"It looks good!" Tokarczyk exclaimed as he received kitchen No. 3's plate.
Leigh praised the team for their nice presentation, but said she would've liked her bagel toasted.
"That goes really good with the bagel," Poeckes said of the eggs.
Kitchen No. 3 ended up winning top honors in the egg category, while kitchen No. 2 was declared the smoothie winner.
"I think it went OK. A few little missteps but that's to be expected," Wagner said. "I think they had fun which is the most important."
