Nine Simi Valley students beat 83 schools nationwide in Cook Around the World competition
(CLAIR | Simi Valley, CA) — Nine teenagers in chef's outfits, a clock on the wall, and a basket on the counter. Inside the basket: shrimp, chorizo, rice and dill. Ninety minutes. Twenty-four small plates. Go.
That was the moment Royal High School's culinary team had trained all year for. And when the timer started at Walt Disney World's annual Cook Around the World championship on May 2, they moved like they meant it. Nine students from Royal High competed against 83 other high school teams from 32 states, with Food Network celebrity chef Duff Goldman in the building and culinary school recruiters watching from the edges of the room. They won everything—best appetizer, best entrée, overall championship, and a judges' creativity award.
The victory marked the program's first overall championship win after nearly a decade of competing in Orlando.
"I was so shocked by how perfectly it went," said Kerry Smith, Royal's culinary arts and hospitality teacher, in a news release written by SVUSD spokesperson Jake Finch. "We've been practicing all year. Each one of them did exactly what they needed to do. It all came out perfectly."
The competition format places teams into sessions of 28 schools each. The team captain picks an envelope from a table, and whatever continent is inside determines everything: the flavor profile, the technique, the expectation. Royal's team captain drew Europe.
At the SVUSD board meeting on May 19, Axel Childers walked trustees through what happened next. The basket revealed two proteins rather than one, which Childers noted was unusual. "We ended up getting two proteins, which were a shrimp and chorizo, one starch being rice and an herb, which was dill," Childers told trustees. From those ingredients, plus access to a shared pantry, the team had to produce 12 small plates of an entrée and 12 small plates of an appetizer within 90 minutes.
Their entrée became a corn tostada topped with Spanish rice and a lemon-and-dill marinated shrimp skewer finished with chimichurri sauce, accompanied by a Spanish grilled corn rib. The appetizer was a cheesy potato croquette stuffed with spiced chorizo, breaded and fried, served with roasted red pepper sauce in a bowl made from black beans.
That black bean bowl was the idea of Rylee "Harvey" Underwood, a 12th grader. The chimichurri sauce, made by 11th grader Uriel Victorio, caught particular attention from judges. "A judge came by and tasted the chimichurri sauce," Smith said. "Then he came back and tasted it again. He said, 'That right there is liquid gold.' Uriel was so excited.'" Smith watched from the sideline as judges made repeated visits to her students' station. "There were four judges and they just kept coming back to us," she said.
The team of nine students is comprised of Emma Balderas, 10th grade; Axel Childers, 11th grade; Cole Heinemann, 11th grade; Brooklyn Itskovich, 12th grade; Gina Morales, 12th grade; Diego Olivares, 11th grade; Hectorivan Reyes-Diaz, 12th grade; Rylee "Harvey" Underwood, 12th grade; and Uriel Victorio, 11th grade. At the awards gala, results came one announcement at a time. First place best appetizer: Royal High School. First place best entrée: Royal High School. Then the creativity award for Underwood individually, followed by the regional award and overall championship. "Not trying to brag or anything, but I'd say we did pretty good," one student told trustees on May 19.
The RHS culinary program has taken teams to the Disney World competition most years since 2016, but this was their first sweep. Smith had three minutes to huddle with her team after the continent draw, then they were on their own.
Cooking represents something durable in an economy increasingly shaped by automation. As artificial intelligence transforms other industries, hands-on culinary skills remain fundamentally human work. For students who discover passion in the kitchen, that creates a path toward careers that cannot easily be replaced by technology. SVUSD officials connected the program to broader educational goals. "Hands-on learning teaches kids why learning math is important," said Dr. Stephen Pietrolungo, noting that students measuring ingredients develop natural fluency with numbers. "It all ties together."
Trustee Kareem Jubran pointed to what the competition required beyond cooking ability. "I love that we have programs like this that are giving our students a place to find confidence," he said, citing teamwork and adaptability as key elements. The program receives funding through Career Technical Education state grants and serves as part of broader district efforts to connect students to their schools. "It gives them another adult advocate... and they're advocating for themselves," said Matt Guzzo, director of secondary education for SVUSD.
Smith has built the program into a consistent competitor on the national stage. This year, for the first time, her students came home with everything available to win. "It is a very big deal," she said.
The victory puts Royal High School's culinary program on the map nationally and demonstrates what focused instruction combined with student dedication can produce. For nine teenagers who spent a year learning to work under pressure, the championship represents validation that their effort translated into excellence when it mattered most.
