GREEN RIVER– Taco John’s has an event every year called the Taco Johns Culinary Competition, which is open to all Wyoming high school students who are taking a culinary class. They have to work in teams of two and create a recipe for Taco Johns.
The only stipulation this year was that the students had to create a new and exciting twist on Taco John’s sirloin steak burrito.
Most of the GRHS culinary students participated, and according to Taco John’s, about 80 students sent in submissions, which is the most they have ever received.
From these 80 submissions Taco John’s picked 6 teams from all over the state as finalists and Vincent Leahy and Kassandra Reyes were the team picked from GRHS.
From there Leahy and Reyes got to go to Cheyenne to the Taco John’s headquarters and compete with the other teams. The competition was on November 15 and each team went into the test kitchen one by one to recreate their menu item for a panel of four judges.
Each team got an hour and a half to cook and plate four burritos and then had to hand deliver them to the judges. They were then interviewed about the process of developing the burrito and various questions about them as a team.
After all six teams cooked and presented, the judges added up the points and declared GRHS the winner and handed them beautiful glass medals and awarded them each $750 scholarships.
Reyes and Leahy made a quesadilla burrito. It had a quesadilla as the shell and was filled with sirloin steak, taco meat, sour cream, onions, cheese, and lettuce.
Both seniors this year, Reyes will be attending Western Wyoming Community College and Leahy will be attending Black Hills State University in South Dakota in the fall
Taco John’s has recently released quesadilla tacos, and while it is not GRHS’ recipe, GRHS culinary teacher Marisa DeClercq believe it was inspired by these students idea.
