North Texas teen chefs serve fresh spread inside AT&T Stadium for Cowboys' home opener
ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Fans have tons of options when it comes to great food at Dallas Cowboys games, but Sunday young chefs got a chance to sell their tasty creations at the home opener at AT&T stadium.
Shaniya Hopkins is a senior at Frisco High School but today you can call her Chef Hopkins.
"It's very satisfying when people like the food that I made," said Hopkins. "It makes me feel good."
She's part of a team of Frisco ISD students who won the Taste of the Cowboys Youth Challenge last April where high school students competed to create a tailgate-themed meal using items commonly donated to the North Texas Food Bank.
Their prize is a $10,000 grant for their school and the opportunity to serve their award-winning dish at the Dallas Cowboys home opener game Sunday.
The program for the students is presented by Dallas Cowboys and Dairy MAX and the grants were provided by The Gene and Jerry Jones Family Foundation and DairyMAX.
"It's a taco bite on a bed of homemade cheese sauce," Hopkins said. "There's a mini taco with ground beef and refried beans inside."
They served their "Touchdown Taco Bites" to hungry fans all day long.
"Oh man, this is the second time I had it," said fan Chad Siu. "I had it before the game and actually at halftime right now."
Some had no idea high school chefs were behind the tasty treats.
"I mean, high school kids making this? That's amazing, that's awesome," Siu said. "I'm coming back a third time, maybe."
Many of these students have dreams of working in the food and restaurant business one day.
"Well, I want to go to culinary school," said Hopkins.
The skills they're sharpening at AT&T Stadium are ones they'll take with them throughout their lives.
"Definitely time management," Hopkins said. "We've learned how to do everything in a smaller amount of time."
Sara Hosford is the chef instructor at Frisco ISD's Career and Technical Education Center.
"I hope when they come home tonight that they feel a huge sense of satisfaction because they were able to accomplish quite a lot," Hosford said. "And I hope that moving into their young adult life they can do pretty much anything that they set their minds to."
Their taco bites were sold out before the end of halftime.
The second-place winners of the Taste of the Cowboys Youth Challenge was a group of students from Lewisville ISD who also got a chance to serve up their dish, chicken fajita cones, at Sunday's big game.
