Search form

Cooks Challenge

Grade Level: 3-6

MaterialsPrintable Student Handout Script 

Story Preview: Its a battle of culinary creativity when a nursery rhyme character competes against a famous chef on a popular cooking show. In just 45 minutes, the contestants must create delicious dishes using a very unique food. When the judges votes are tallied, the outcome astonishes everyone. Whose dishes will come out on top?

Additional Resources

* Students can learn many fascinating facts about food from Factmonster.coms Food section. Topics include foods across the globe, fun food facts, and food nutrition information.
* A chef does much more than prepare meals. The Culinary Institute of Americas Kids Web site includes sections that provide descriptions of various types of chefs, information about the skills needed to become a chef, and a culinary glossary.

Roles: Narrator, Fiona Fennel, Susanna Speed, Edgar Langoustine, Bakers Man, Farmer in the Dell, Timekeeper, Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, Little Miss Muffet, Queen of Hearts, Jack Sprat, Sugar Plum Fairy, Audience

Setting: present day, television studio

Theme(s): cooking, food

Vocabulary:

  • casserole: mixture of foods cooked in a dish; a stew
  • culinary: related to cooking
  • curd: material from milk used to make cheese
  • delicacy: a rare food
  • fennel: herb in the parsley family with leaves, stems and seeds that can be eaten
  • fiddlehead ferns: young, tightly-curled shoots where leaves form on fern plants
  • fitness: health, strength
  • pureed: cooked food that has been blended to a smooth texture
  • langoustine: a kind of lobster or shrimp
  • scrumptious: tasty, delicious
  • studio: room or workplace where media programs are produced and shown
  • whey: watery part of milk

Props: (Optional) toy or student-made microphone (paper, cardboard or other available materials) for Fiona Fennel; aprons or smocks, toy pots or pans for the contestants; white tablecloth, sheet or other cloth for the Farmer in the Dell; paper, pens or pencils for the judges; paper plates, plastic knives, forks and spoons

Follow-Up Questions:

  • Who was the host of the show Steel Cook? Why was the program in Nursery Rhyme Kingdom?
  • Who was the challenger? Why did he choose to compete with Susanna Speed?
  • What was the mysterious theme food? Describe it.
  • How much time did the chefs have to complete their dishes?
  • Who were the judges?
  • What were the differences between the dishes created by the two contestants?
  • What was the outcome? Why was everyone surprised by the results?
  • In what area did the competitors receive the same score? In what areas were their scores different?

Follow-Up Activities:
Encourage students to investigate fiddlehead ferns and fiddlehead fern recipes online.

Invite students to share their experiences in cooking or helping to prepare meals. Ask them to list the skills they used. Then have students to list the qualifications they think a chef needs. You also might have students write about some unusual foods theyve eaten. Tell students to describe how the foods tasted, smelled and felt in their stories.

Additional Notes:
The Education World lesson planning article Where Did Foods Originate? encourages students to investigate food origins and how early explorations to the Americas changed the diets of people in various parts of the world.

Article by Cara Bafile
Education World®
Copyright © 2022 Education World

Â