This competition didn’t take place in Atlanta but when I received the email about this amazing girl who won the competition in St. Augustine, FL, I had to share it with you. All too often we don’t encourage our children to participate in contests for fear that they will feel let down because they didn’t win or because we (parents) just don’t have time. Hannah is just 10-years-old and she already has an awareness of nutrition. Hannah entered the contest because of her desire to learn how to protect the planet’s future, from the farm to the table and to cook with a famous chef. Children like Hannah remind me that I need to give my own children (12 and 5) more credit and encouragement. On more than one occasion, I did not encourage my children to enter a contest because I did not want either to feel rejected or not good enough. Almost every time either of my kids has entered a contest/competition, they either won or if they did not win neither of my children were a poor-sport about it.
The moral of the story is.. let your children follow their dream no matter how unrealistic or inconvenient it may seem to you at the time. Children are very resilient both physically and emotionally and many parents don’t give their children the credit they deserve when it comes to entering a competition, a creating a very strange science fair project, or submitting ‘unique’ art work for the school art fair. Kids are brave! Let’s not take the brave away from our children.
Hannah Erasmus Cooking at Home in Ponte Vedra Beach
A student at PV Rawlings Elementary School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Hannah Erasmus, has a passion for food although she’s only ten years old. Her dream was to spend a day in the kitchen of a chef’s restaurant learning about nutritious cooking and how to protect the planet’s future from the farm to the table. Her winning entry story reflected an awareness of nutrition and cooking for the family as she entered Chef Jean-Stephane Poinard’s competition to win ‘My Day in a Chef’s Kitchen’.
Chef Jean-Stephane Poinard
Chef Poinard’s children Sebastian and Margaux helped Chef Poinard to choose Hannah’s essay over nearly 75 entries in the ‘dream’ contest. The contest celebrates chef’s restaurant, Bistro de Leon, on its 4th Anniversary. “After reading the essays, we felt all of the children’s essays were excellent. We enjoyed her candid imagination and she introduced health-conscious ideas”.
Hannah’s parents, Dr. David and Anja Erasmus are proud of their daughter’s original essay. Mrs. Erasmus comments “Hannah is an outgoing, fun-loving and positive little girl. She has always enjoyed cooking and has on numerous occasions said ‘When I grow up, I want to be a chef in Paris’. She also loves playing tennis and piano. Another big dream is to be an actress and singer. It’s a joy to have her as our daughter; she’s very social and enjoys being with her friends.”
Upon learning of her triumph, Hannah commented “I love to cook with my Mom. I cut vegetables and once we made a large fruit cake. I LOVE chocolate and sometimes restaurants serve really big desserts with LOTS of whipped cream, Mine will be smaller so that it’s healthy, delicious and nutritious. I can’t wait to cook with Chef Poinard in St. Augustine”.
Chef Jean-Stephane Poinard
Chef Poinard himself dreams of building a healthier next generation, nurturing children and students by educating them in the kitchen. “Local garden programs are a great way to introduce healthful eating to children and start the conversation between parents and their kids. Cooking together is the first step in fighting obesity and diabetes”.
HANNAH ERASMUS’ winning essay
“Amazing!” Hear that? That’s what you will say when you taste our delicious new desert. What I mean when I said “OUR delicious new dessert” is that when I was little I always wanted to make a scrumptious dessert with a famous chef.
When the chef and I would be in our kitchen, we would bake keylime pie with real limes, incredible fat-free chocolate cake, caramel apples, chocolate covered strawberries and best of all…we would make the most nutritious fruit cake ever!
The Fruit Cake would have vanilla dough with a filling of freshly sliced strawberries. The top part of the fruit cake would have mangos, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, cherries and oranges. On top of all the fruits, there would be whipped cream with eighty calories.
I’ve always loved cooking or baking things. But I mostly love baking desserts. So, do you want to bake a foot high wedding cake?
Hannah’s GRAND PRIZE includes:
- Meeting Chef Jean-Stephane Poinard at Bistro de Leon
- Spending one morning with Chef Poinard visiting a local farmer to learn about and shop for ingredients.
- Joining Chef in his Kitchen as he prepares a surprising ‘healthy and fun’ dish.
- Dinner at Bistro de Leon with Hannah’s family
- Overnight accommodations at historic St. Francis Inn (circa 1791) www.stfrancisinn.com
BISTRO DE LEON
12 Cathedral Place
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
904-810-2100
www.bistrodeleon.com
