HUNCH pays off as Burnet wins NASA food competition

The Burnet High School Space Dawgs shot for the moon in the 2021 NASA HUNCH culinary competition and now their food will end up among the stars.

The Space Dawgs found out Monday they had rocketed to first place with their Artemis Creamy Chicken Francese recipe and now their winning entry will be prepared by the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Lab and be served to astronauts on the International Space Station within the next six to nine months.

The students won $2,000 from the American Culinary Federation (ACF) for the school’s culinary arts program and have been invited to cook for the opening reception and be recognized at ACF National Convention in Orlando, Florida, this summer.

On top of that, the five members of the Space Dawgs — Jacey Huston, Bridget Bristow, Matthew Thrane, Nicholai Rowland and Will Rundzieher — all will receive a full-tuition scholarship to Sullivan University in Kentucky, one of the top culinary arts schools in America and the host of this year’s NASA HUNCH competition.

“I am very proud of these kids!” BHS culinary arts teacher Chef Mike Erickson said. “They have been through a lot over the last two years with COVID. It is going to change their lives having school paid for. I am so excited to also be putting a piece of Burnet up in the stars. Godspeed Burnet Culinary Space Dawgs!”

While Erickson found out his team had won the contest Friday, he took the opportunity to plan a special way to surprise and honor the students. Erickson told them that day they had only finished in seventh place.

Then, on Monday, NASA HUNCH culinary project manager Allison Westover and Chef Domonic Tardy of Sullivan University made a Zoom call to the team under the pretense of a routine, post-competition follow-up.

“I am so excited you guys were participating this year for your first year in the NASA HUNCH culinary program,” Westover told the team. “I’m excited whenever I get new teams and like to meet them and tell them how proud I am of all the work they did. Y’all did a fabulous job and I love your little rocket you built, too. I’m wondering if I’m going to see your lovely faces at the ACF national convention this summer?”

“What’s that?” Erickson asked.

“That’s where the first place winners go,” Westover replied.

As team members slowly started to process what Westover said, Erickson shouted out, “You guys won!” and that’s when the Burnet Esprit de Corps drum line, Barney Bulldog, administrators, BCISD board member Robby Robertson and the students’ parents gleefully flooded the room.

“We what?” Rundzieher hollered in amazement.

“I knew it!” Thrane added. “I am just so excited that these kids are our winners for this year,” Westover then continued. “They did a fabulous job and I loved getting all the communications from Chef Erickson telling us all about their different parts of the project and all of the pictures. We’re very, very proud of them and I do hope we get to meet them at the ACF National Convention. Congratulations on being our 2021 Culinary HUNCH winners!”

“Congratulations! I love all the detail — all the detail you put into the video and the logo,” Tardy added. “What also comes with this is each member will also be receiving a full tuition scholarship to Sullivan University.”

The Sullivan University scholarships, valued at $60,000 each, are good through the Associate of Science Degree program, majoring either in Culinary Arts; Baking & Pastry Arts; Travel, Tourism & Event Management; or Hotel & Restaurant Management and is paid out equally over the six quarters of the associate degree Program.

Sullivan University student chefs cooked the 10 competing recipes for a distinguished panel of judges last month and the school broadcast the food prep and tastings live through their Youtube channel.

“This is absolutely amazing!” Robertson said Monday, before leading the room in a rousing, traditional “Spirit, Pride, Honor” cheer. “I don’t know if I can get through this without crying because it is unbelievable what you’ve done.

“You’ve shown the state of Texas, you’ve shown the United States and now you’re not going to be on the map. You’re going to be on the star charts!”

BHS principal Casey Burkhart praised the students for their attention to detail, even in the midst of a pandemic. The team spent the year researching how to send food to space, talking to chefs, food scientists, past astronauts, and watching as many YouTube videos about space food as possible before devising their winning dish.

“This year, when we started this school year, we didn’t know what it would look like. We didn’t know if we were going to be able to finish or what was in store for us,” Burkhart said. “But ya’ll didn’t just finish. Ya’ll took care of the details, ya’ll showed Spirit, Pride and Honor everyday with ev erything ya’ll do and it paid off!”

Artemis Creamy Chicken Francese is a classic chicken dish created by Italian immigrants as comfort food to remind them of home while using American ingredients and with incredible flavors. It includes a lemony, sauteed chicken parmesan-crusted cutlet, finished with a smooth, creamy, white wine sauce.

The students chose to pair it with zucchini noodles because they are lower in carbs and also provide a healthy amount of calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, folate and Vitamins A and C.