Worland culinary students win Taco John's competition

WORLAND - Three local Worland High School students won the Taco John's Culinary Competition Cook-off which took place Wednesday in Cheyenne.

WHS family and consumer science teacher Brenda Trippel said, "Christina Isbell, Cassie Christensen and Leeausha Fronk developed a new twist on an old classic by combining different ingredients and cooking techniques. Their product is called 'spicy buffalo chicken bacon roll.'"

Trippel said the menu item consists of chicken marinated in buffalo sauce, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, jalapeños and bacon. The entire roll is then wrapped in corn shell and fried. "Comments from their test markets samples were very favorable indeed."

She added, "We are very proud of the extra effort these girls went to in order to be one of the top teams in the state. They created a quality product that has strong customer appeal. The judges really liked our entry and the teamwork and communication that our team exhibited. They were also impressed with how our members handled problems and overcame difficulties along the way. Taco John's is one of the major culinary competitions in Wyoming for high school students and I am extremely proud of them and excited by their first place win."

Isbell said, "I didn't think we were going to win. It was a tough competition and a lot of great ideas."

Isbell said she came up with the idea of using the buffalo chicken. "Then we kind of just went around and added ideas into and it ended up making a great product."

Christensen said, "It was a very great honor to win the competition."

Fronk added, "It was very exciting. I didn't think a town like Worland could win a competition like that."

The competition

Taco John's vice president for menu strategy and innovation Bob Karisny said, "We invite high schools in Wyoming and northern Colorado to participate in developing a menu on the Taco John's menu. "What we do is we share a lot of information with them so they can fully understand what it entails to create (a menu item)," he said, adding that they go over what it takes to create a fast food item, what it takes to be a fast food employee, what equipment and ingredients does it take and the costs involved.

"What we are trying to do and share with the teachers and students is the discipline we go through so they can do that as a learning experience as well as an opportunity for us to not only see what students that age will eat, because typically they won't make a menu item they wouldn't want to eat themselves, but also to give them the opportunity to have their menu item featured in a Taco John restaurant," Karisny said.

There were 57 recipes submitted this year with the top six teams invited to Wednesday's culinary competition in the Taco John's test kitchens located at Taco John's International headquarters in Cheyenne, Karisny said.

As the first-place team, each member receives a $500 scholarship. Karisny said the runner-up team members each earn a $250 scholarship.

For the WHS students, the project for the competition started earlier this fall. Isbell, Christensen and Fronk are enrolled in the Culinary/ProStart class at Worland High School. "Earlier this fall, the culinary classes were given a unique assignment. They were to research and develop a new recipe that could work as a menu item at Taco John's. Students were required to identify what areas of the menu might benefit from an added item, create a recipe, do prototyping of the item, have a test market sample the item and establish the selling price for the item. Once this process was complete, the research packet was then submitted to the Taco John's team at headquarters. Only students who are enrolled in a ProStart program in Wyoming were eligible to compete," Trippel said.

Karisny explained that at Wednesday's competition each team had 90 minutes to produce their menu item.

The food was then judged by a six-member panel. Karisny said this year he selected six people from different capacities in Taco John's from an hourly shift employee to one of the franchise owners.

While not a judge, Karisny said when the judges spoke to the Worland students they remarked that they "loved the flavor" noting it was "exciting, spicy with a bit of a kick to it."

Finalizing the product

As the 2015 winners, Trippel said the team will travel to Taco John's headquarters in the spring to help develop their product into a potential menu item for use in Taco John's restaurants. The team members will work with Taco John's staff on marketing, cost of making the product and pricing and other issues related to establishing a new menu item.

Karisny added that the Worland team will have the opportunity for their menu item to be featured in Taco John's restaurants.

He said when they come back to Cheyenne they will work with research and development to get it ready for a restaurant.

"If it works successfully to go into a company restaurant, we will contact the Worland franchisee to see if they would love to feature the item for 30 days," Karisny said. If the test market is favorable, it could become a menu item for the entire system, he added.

Fronk said, "We're excited to help them finish the process and getting it going into the restaurants."

Taco John's operates and franchises more than 380 quick-service restaurants in 25 states. Family owned and operated primarily by independent franchisees, the business opened its first restaurant in 1969 when businessmen Harold Holmes and Jim Woodson developed the concept based on a Cheyenne taco stand owned by John Turner. At that time, the restaurants were built in Cheyenne, and then trucked by trailer to franchisees' sites developed across the Rocky Mountain Region and the Midwest. In many of these locations, the local Taco John's restaurant served the first Mexican food in town and pioneered drive-thru service. Taco John's prides itself on serving generous portions, menu items prepared fresh to your order, high-quality ingredients, and special recipes, seasonings and sauces.