Aspiring chefs from around Norman competed Thursday to make the best healthy snack food.

These students of the table were much younger than their tasty creations often indicated. Students from each Norman Public Schools elementary school made their recipes while parents watched anxiously.

"These are the students competing for the district championship," said Jeff Coleman, Sodexo district chef who organized the competition.

Catherine Cook, Monroe third-grader, won first place overall with her "Berry Blend" fruit smoothie.

"We just put some things in the blender and tried it and we liked it," Cook explained about her recipe. "My mom and me really like to make smoothies."

Second place overall was Paytan Rhea, fifth-grader at Roosevelt, and third place overall was Caytie Ross, Truman second-grader.

Calor Peterson, Jefferson fourth-grader, won best presentation; Laura Lemmon, Adams fourth-grader, won the food safety award; and Zoe Khan, Lincoln third-grader, won healthiest snack.

Others who represented their schools in the competition were: Sarah Boone, second grade, Cleveland; Julie Woosley, fifth grade, Eisenhower; Makena Johnson, fifth grade, Jackson; Fatima Sandhu, second grade, Kennedy; Arielle Quartuccio, third grade, Lakeview; Lyric Wall-Kuhn, third grade, Madison; Theo Cohen, third grade, McKinley; Nick Amsden, fifth grade, Washington; and the youngest competitor, Gavin Ice, kindergarten, Wilson.

The students all hoped to win the championship that took place in Norman North High School's cafeteria Thursday evening, but Johnson said she was honored to have her recipe chosen as the best from their school.

"It's really a big surprise," she said. "I was speechless."

Amsden agreed.

"I just was so happy that it happened," he said of being chosen from his school.

The friendly contest was sponsored by Sodexo, which provides Norman Public Schools' food services. Last year was the first year of the competition, and while most of the aspiring chefs were new to the competition this year, last year's winner did return to wow taste buds once again.

Quartuccio created "Fall Day in Norman" for this year's contest. Her snack was laid out as a landscape of veggie trees surrounding an edible lake.

Hers wasn't the only one that went all-out with creativity this year. Peterson's entry was "Dinosaur Food," and it looked like just that from far away. Plastic dinos surrounded a field of spinach that featured cups of nuts, pretzels and other treats that looked vaguely like something the toy dinosaurs would like to eat.

Woosley's entry was "Fruit Octopus." She carved faces into red apples and attached Fruit-by-the-Foot legs to the apple bodies.

"I was hanging out with my friends and I just came up with the idea," Woosley explained. "... I told them, 'Why don't I do a fruit octopus?'"

Rhea constructed a fruit volcano out of fruit and toothpicks that was complete with yogurt lava. She said she made a practice volcano the previous night to prepare for the competition.

"I made it last night too," Rhea said. "It went very well."

Lemmon presented her recipe in a special way. Her hummus was surrounded by stacks of brightly colored vegetables and pita slices. She said she normally doesn't make it that fancy.

"We don't really display it, we just get it out of the bag," Lemmon said.

Parents also attended the contest to support their children. Beth Khan, Zoe's mother, said she was glad Sodexo encouraged students to eat healthy in such creative ways. She said she told her daughter she was a winner no matter what happened Thursday.

"You already won," Khan said she told her daughter. "So just have fun."

Zoe certainly had fun Thursday evening as she shared samples of her "Yummy Yogurt Cup" with visitors.

"My mom used to make it for me with different fruits and different kinds of yogurt, so I just did it with things I liked the best," she said. "But you can do it with different yogurt or different fruit."

The blueberry-raspberry yogurt cups were delicious.

Julianna Parker Jones 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com