By Ashley Randall, Farm to Cafeteria Coordinator

On Feb. 3, Catkin Café hosted Orcas School’s Student Chef Winner Theo Vaccarella and six friends for a pasta making class.

Theo won first place in the 2016 Student Chef Competition with his healthful and tasty, garden meatball soup. Under the direction of Angela Emery, lead chef at the café, the young chefs gathered around a prep table set with bowls of flour, eggs and water. Beginning with mounds of flour before them, the boys learned how to combine the three simple ingredients to form dough, knead the dough, run it through a hand-cranked pasta machine, and properly cut the dough into strips of pasta to create either fettuccini or bow-tie noodles.

Beginning with mounds of flour before them, the boys learned how to combine the three simple ingredients to form dough, knead the dough, run it through a hand-cranked pasta machine, and properly cut the dough into strips of pasta to create either fettuccini or bow-tie noodles.

As they excitedly dished up their finished creation with basil and tomato sauce, many laughs and thank you’s were shared. Each of these young chefs returned home with full bellies, their own batch of kneaded dough, and a new culinary skill to share with their family. Thank you, Cheryl Helm and Angela Emery of Catkin Café for generously hosting such a fun pasta making class for our island youth.