The Battle Of The Lunch Ladies And Gentlemen

Their jobs can be stressful and their schedules wacky, but when it comes to customer service you can always count on the school lunch lady for service with a smile.  On Tuesday, lunch ladies and gentlemen from around Oklahoma got to show off their real cooking skills in a gourmet culinary cook-off.  News On 6 anchor Jennifer Loren was there as the competition got cooking.

Armed with mixing bowls, recipes and a little instruction, Oklahoma lunch ladies and gentlemen, were prepared to prepare.

"It's supposed to be pretty stressful cause we're all competing to win the grand prize," said Haley.

The culinary competition takes ordinary lunch ladies out of their element and into the gourmet chef's kitchen.

"From what I understand we're cooking wild boar," said one of the cooks.

"Well, it's got a fancy name to it, but its chicken and rice and mango salsa," said Haley of her recipe.

All of the cooks are from Oklahoma and organizers hope they'll take some new skills back to their own kitchens.

"And the whole idea behind this thing is if they can come out here and they can do something like this.  This fancy and this difficult.  Things they've never seen before, you know, like what's a shallot.  Then, they go back to their kitchens and it gives them confidence," said Sidney Sides of Sodexho District Chef.

There were five teams stuffed into the kitchen for the competition on Tuesday. The blue team was Team Tulsa.  The khaki team is Team Durant.  The pink team is Team Bartlesville.  Yellow is Team Owasso. And, purple is Team Tulsa- Senior Nutrition.

Teams were judged on three different courses and the presentation of their dishes.

The big winner was Team Owasso.  They cooked wild boar.