Young Tri-Cities chef turns average school lunch into a national award winner

A Kennewick fourth-grader has taken a title for the top young chef in the U.S.

Lexie Jauregui won the 2020 Sodexo Future Chefs Challenge national title.

“I feel great. I feel excited and my family is excited, too,” said the Sunset View Elementary School student.

Her winning nacho recipe was a re-imagined school lunch favorite.

She put a healthy spin on the dish by swapping sweet potato chips for the traditional tortilla chips, topping it with a meat-substitute and adding healthy additions like avocado and a sour cream drizzle.

“She loves to add pizzazz to everything she does,” her mom, Leslie Hughes told the Tri-City Herald.

To get to the national competition, she first became the winner at the Kennewick School District’s Future Chefs challenge in February and then advanced to the regional competition.

Lexie has never taken a cooking class, but has learned everything she knows from her mom.

“She cooks with me every single night. She has been cooking with me since she was 5,” Hughes said. “She loves to chop and has good knife skills — especially for a 9-year-old.”

Before the school district competition, Hughes said they ate nachos three nights in a row as Lexie perfected her recipe that she often makes for her family.

Lexie is looking forward to advancing her skills and hopes to someday own a restaurant and write a cookbook.

She also loves making lasagna, meatloaf and apple pie — and cooks breakfast in bed and makes coffee for her family every weekend.

And if Lexie could pick anything to cook?

“I’d start out with a salad. Then I’d have au gratin potatoes, cucumber salad and tri-tip marinated in orange juice and soy sauce,” she told the Herald. “For dessert I’d have a brownie sundae topped with chocolate syrup and ice cream.”

Lexie and her mom agreed that homemade chocolate syrup would be the next new recipe.

This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 12:42 PM.