Student by day, cook by night. How a York County teen fared in K12 National Cook Off

As Aliyah Abdallah measured and prepped for her chicken dish, the overhead lights seemed brighter than those in her Mom’s York kitchen.

Abdallah, one of six contestants in the K12 National Cook Off competition, noticed some other things too.

“Main pressure was time and there was limited space in the kitchen area, so I always had to go first and explain what I made for them,” said Abadallah.

Abdallah, 17, is a rising senior at Cyber Academy of South Carolina, an online and home school program.

She entered the cooking competition, offered through the K12 Enrichment program to give online students opportunities to participate in challenges to win prizes for their talents.

The teen was selected as one of the six student finalists for creating an original recipe. Abdallah’s entry recipe was sweet and sour chicken presented in a cut pineapple. The finalists received an all expense paid trip to Arlington to showcase their talents in a cook-off battle.

The finals took place on July 13. The full program is available to watch Aug. 14 live on K12’s YouTube channel. Winners received $1,000 for first place; $500 for second place; $350 for third place, according to K12 Cook Off competition rules. Fourth through sixth place received a gift basket worth $300.

Although she was the ”people’s choice” winner heading into the finals, according to K12’s website, her grand-slam dishes didn’t secure the top prize. Abdallah finished fourth. Though she came up short, she left with a new mindset.

“It was a good opportunity for me to go, I enjoyed myself. I never got to do anything like this before,” she said.

The York County resident always had a love for cooking and thought this opportunity would be fun to try.

“When I started cooking I found the different spices and ingredients were interesting,” she said. “It’s always fun to cook for my family and community.”.

‘Nerve racking’

Dr. Bilqees Abdallah, a medical doctor in geriatrics, was surprised when her daughter said she wanted to enter the competition. Her mom realizedAliyah needed to do something like this.

“I was shocked she would take on such a challenge like this, I was super excited for her,” Bilqees Abdallah said.

With many mixed emotions, her mother stated the program was very competitive and was enjoyable to watch.

“It was nerve racking, we watched the kids preparing the food from a screen without audio,”Abdallah’s mother said. “All of us parents try to guess what the kids are looking around for in the kitchen and you can’t help them so it puts you on the edge of your seat.”

The recipe and cooking rounds

According to the mother and daughter, the cooks had two rounds to compete against one another.

The first round was the dinner with one hour to cook, while the next was a dessert round with only 30-minutes.

“We picked out of a hat what we would make,” Abdallah said. “I selected lemon for dessert and chicken breast for protein, green pepper as a vegetable and linguine noodles and spinach to make a creamy stuff chicken meal with fresh herbs.”

“I created a lemon cheesecake cup, with lemon snap cookie in the center and graham cracker crumbs at the bottom and lemons on the side,” she said.

Not knowing what’s next for the young cook, her mother hinted at a potential project with her older sister.

“Aliyah and her older sister are planning a cookbook. It’s a work in progress but I am excited about that project,” Bilqees Abdallah said.

“That is a long-term goal. (Ayaliah) and her sister have been compiling recipes over the years for their cookbook. Last I knew, their goal was to have a ‘family’ cookbook to pass on through the generations.”