Learning all about outdoor cooking doesn’t have to be boring! Mix together some creepy zombies, yummy food, and fun – it’s a great opportunity to engage older girls and practice important skills.

Last weekend, West Coast Area hosted our annual day-long Iron Chef cooking competition for Pathfinders, Rangers, and adult Guiders. This year’s theme was A Feast Fit For Zombies – very appropriate with the proximity to Halloween! We had over 24 teams participate, all in the running for the cast iron pan trophy. Each team brought their own camp kitchen equipment and dazzled us with their cooking and creativity on a short timeline and with limited supplies.

West Coast Area Girl Guides in B.C. have a ghoulishly good time at their Feast Fit for Zombies – Iron Chef cooking competition.

Over 120 competitors first participated in a food draft, where they had the opportunity to select ingredients one at a time until they were all gone. This meant some creative choices as the draft went on – substituting other foods for their top picks when they were not available anymore. Each team had to put together an appetizer, main, and dessert with a common zombie-themed characteristic: brains! Girls made their food look like brains and/or used ingredients that are good for your brain to get top marks.

As with many Guiding events, we also incorporated an element of community service into our Iron Chef day. Girls were encouraged to bring non-perishable goods for the local food bank and compete for the ‘best donation’ title!

We were lucky to have community and chef judges from local non-profit organizations and Guiding groups. The judges had the best job of all: testing each group’s food! All of the judges, several of whom are professional chefs, were impressed and proud of the girls’ efforts.

Check out photos of the fabulous dishes.

This event was made possible by the efforts of our camping committee who did an excellent job organizing and promoting registration. Thank you!

By guest blogger Diamond Isinger, is a communications consultant in Vancouver and West Coast Area Commissioner for Girl Guides of Canada.