Young Olathe Cook Wins White House Audience
After Olathe seventh grader Joey Heidari walked through various sections of the White House — through the stately Blue Room, the ornate Red Room parlor — pausing thoughtfully at the chandeliers (that’s kind of her thing), it finally came time to meet First Lady Michelle Obama.
Heidari’s impression of Obama: “She’s super tall, like almost as tall as my dad,” she said with a laugh.
Heidari won an audience with the First Lady as a winner of the Lunchtime Healthy Eating Challenge, a culinary competition seeking healthy recipes from the nation’s young cooks. Of 1,200 entries, Heidari was one of 56 winners selected.
Heidari said Obama showed an appreciation for the inventiveness of the recipes that earned top honors in the contest and were prepared for the the winners’ appearance at the White House, the annual Kids’ State Dinner.
Heidari’s contribution was a lentil taco dish with a cilantro-avocado drizzle. The other chefs, participants ranging from 8 to 12 years old, brought novel dishes like watermelon salad and chicken prepared with peaches.
“(Obama) said these recipes were so impressive,” Heidari reported.
The 12-year-old Olathe resident learned she’d been selected to visit the White House for a July 14 visit earlier in the summer. She reported to the nation’s capital with her mom Abby Heidari, a dietician and early influence in her daughter’s becoming a young cook.
“My philosophy is that (my children) need to leave my house being able to cook,” Heidari said. As a dietician, she said many of her clients have issues that stem from simply eating out too often. Cooking is a way to limit one’s exposure to cheap but poor quality fast food, she said.
Heidari said teaching her daughter how to cook has also been a critical part of building her sense of self possession and confidence. “I’ve stopped assisting her” in the kitchen, Heidari said.
Joey Heidari said her mom is “basically my role model.”
The young cook’s arrival in the White House is a step in a long and not always pretty path to culinary prowess. As an 11-year-old student of the kitchen, Heidari turned a boxed macaroni and cheese dish into an inedible soup.
While mistakes and knowledge gaps are usually the biggest obstacles keeping people out of the kitchen, Abby Heidari said the experience was a necessary step in building the sense of humor and resilience one needs to endure the not uncommon kitchen failure.
As a cook with a more refined technique, Joey Heidari now knows how to make a better soup. One of her favorite dishes to prepare is a homemade clam chowder.
Heidari’s existing dreams are centered around becoming a graphic designer, but she said her cooking skills will serve her in a lifetime of sensible and thoughtful eating as she continues making meals for herself and her family.
Heidari starts seventh grade at Oregon Trail Middle School in the fall.
