An award-winning Summer pie

Whether you want a sweet dessert, a savoury steak, or toasty tomato soup, three local award-winning chefs have you covered.

Alas, you won’t find those chefs directing the action at local restaurants quite yet. Summer Wall, Mirrah Webster, and Riley Meszaros have schoolwork to finish. But that doesn’t mean you can’t sample the food of the three Fraser Valley junior cooks.

Summer, Mirrah, and Riley competed in last year’s Field to Fork Challenge, and the trio’s recipes—all emphasizing local BC products—are now available for anyone to try to replicate.

Summer finished first place in her category, and Tyler spoke to her about cooking, finding inspiration in local blueberries, and her award-winning pie recipe.

You can click below to Summer’s recipe, those of Mirrah and Riley, the two other competing Fraser Valley junior chefs, and those of their competitors. You can also test the recipes of two adults: Agriculture Minister and Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis; and a real pro, Chef Trevor Randle, BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation’s chief instructor.

Summer Wall: Blueberry pie

Mirrah Webster: Tomahawk steak

Riley Meszaros: Roasted tomato soup

Agriculture Minister Pam Alexis: BC tzatziki

Chef Trevor Randle: Potato gnocchi, cheese sauce, oven-roasted broccoli, and lemon macaroons

A summer pie

Summer, the Fraser Valley’s newest award-winning chef, is 11-years-old (almost 12!), lives in Mission and attends Mennonite Education Institute.

She’s no newbie to a kitchen, she told The Current.

“I’ve been cooking for a while now and I really enjoy doing it. I won’t do it every single day; I’ll do it for fun, sometimes because I’m bored. And usually at my aunt’s house because she likes to bake as well.”

Summer says she was in grade four or five when she first started getting interested in cooking.

“My friend started doing it and they would always bring some snacks in [to the classroom]. I kind of wanted to try that myself, so I started doing it. And it got really fun because I like measuring things and then pouring it in and just mixing it for fun.”

Summer said she usually bakes sweet stuff, or makes pancakes.

“Once in a while, at a birthday party, I’ll feel like making a cake or something.”

She usually follows recipes. But the Field to Fork contest required more than that; contestants didn’t just submit their own recipes and images of their completed meal, they also had to create a demonstration video for judges to watch.

Summer is in 4-H (she’s learning how to care for her rabbits), one of the organizations that created the Field to Fork contest. The contest required the use of local products, and having just recently moved to Mission, Summer tried to figure out what she could make with blueberries that grew in the area.

“Pie popped into my mind because I had already made many things like blueberries and because I didn't really know what else to bake!” she said.

For her pie, Summer drew on a recipe in a Mennonite cookbook. Before recording her demonstration video, she baked a practice pie. After figuring out all the details, she was ready to go.

A pie can be a challenging proposition, she said. In particular, you have to make sure your crust isn’t too thick or too thin—and that you have enough to fit the pie’s pan while providing enough leftovers for the top.

But the proof was in the pastry.

“It tasted really good!”

The tasty pie came with a reward, as judge’s selection of Summer’s dish as the top one in her category. That came with a decent cash prize, but also marked a lifetime first.

“I didn't really think I was going to get it because I had made quite a few mistakes and I had to fix those,” she said. “When I heard about the news, I was super happy and excited about it. Because I had never really won first-place for anything before.”