PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s newest up-and-coming farm-to-table superchef didn’t graduate from a renowned culinary school — at least not yet. In fact, she hasn’t even graduated from middle school.
But Sienna Mazone, 13, of Dresden is making a name for herself in the Maine food scene these days.
At the elbow of Portland chef Shannon Bard this week, the home-schooled seventh-grader whipped up a healthy vegetarian meal for an assembled crowd as part of a new White House-backed initiative called Kids & Chefs Cook for Success.
“Cooking is one of my passions,” said the teenager, who dreams of sauteing fresh vegetables plucked from her garden and becoming the next Alice Waters. So far, so good.
Last summer, she won the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge sponsored by cooking website Epicurious and first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign. That secured her a spot at the Kid’s State Dinner at the White House. While touring the gardens and attending a luncheon in the ballroom, “the president encouraged us kids to get out there and get cooking and do at least three demos in our home state,” Sienna said.
This fall, Sienna and Bard are doing just that.
On Tuesday, the pair conducted a cooking demonstration open to the public at Bard’s Zapoteca restaurant. Sienna prepared her winning meal: Mexican-style haystacks. Bard, a Food Network darling, created her creamy, spicy butternut squash soup.
A poised, confident Mazone instructed Bard to grab ingredients and told the crowd, “It’s OK to use extra salsa on this,” while liberally pouring the condiment on top. Her dish, made with chile peppers, avocado and sweet potatoes, served on refried beans and garnished with homemade tortilla chips, impressed Bard. “It’s a great, great, great dish,” she said.
Inspired by the cooking show “Chopped,” Sienna told her mother to time her one day. In half an hour, she made the meatless meal with ingredients the family had on hand. Her inventive, hearty haystack was one of 1,500 entrees submitted from across the country. It was chosen as Maine’s best.
Next thing she knew, she was flying to Washington, D.C. in July and meeting the first lady.
Beginning her culinary streak at 2 years old, the daughter of a doctor and a fitness-minded mother has veered away from junk foods.
“Ninety percent of diseases can be prevented,” said her mother, Kim Mazone, a health educator and organic gardener. “We want to encourage people to make a lifestyle choice. Through simple exercise and by eating a vegetarian diet, disease can be reversed.”
Sienna teaches cooking classes for her peers at The Ark, a community center and cafe in Lewiston, and develops recipes with that notion in mind. Another hit is a rainbow salad she makes with “fruits and vegetables from all the colors of the rainbow.”
A balanced meal, she says, should have the following components: “half from fruits and vegetables, a fourth from grains, a fourth from protein and a cup of dairy on the side.”
Her haystack, which blends textures, mega nutrients and bright colors, impressed Portland’s top toque.
“I love the fact that she came upon a very different concept. Plus, a lot of the ingredients you have at home,” said Bard, who may add a Sienna-inspired dish to her menu someday.
With her newly minted platform as a cooking phenom, Sienna seeks to “encourage people to eat healthy and become a role model.”
What’s next for the 13-year-old?
“When I have a restaurant someday, I want it to be Mexican, possibly in California or Hawaii. I don’t like the winter.”
On Sunday, Bard and Mazone will cook at the Health and Wellness Expo at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. They also will hold a demonstration at Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2.
