Posted by Star Community News, TX on August 20, 2008 at 16:39:10:
Rowlett boy named ‘Rising Mango Star’
By Lynn Proctor Windle, Managing Editor
When Dean Sturt grows up, he wants to be chef.
And at 10 years old, the Rowlett fourth-grader already has a pretty good head start in his career field. Sturt has been named the first ever Rising Mango Star by the National Mango Board, beating out two other youngsters with his Mangolicious Flip Flop Cake in a cook-off at The Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.
The trio was judged by a panel of noted food experts including Simply Delicioso star Ingrid Hoffmann, Chef Allen “The Mango Man” Susser, and Regina Ragone, food director of Family Circle magazine. Contest officials said Sturt was chosen for his creativity, presentation and unique use of mango.
“It was great to spend time with all of the finalists and see them share the same enthusiasm for cooking as I do,” said Hoffmann, whose cooking show airs weekly on the Food Network. “All of the dishes were incredible, and I was blown away by Dean’s mango recipe. It was so original, and the taste was a mango lover’s dream.”
Sturt said the recipe is an update of his mother’s popular pineapple upside cake. Sturt’s Mangolicious Flip Flop Cake recipe is a moist cake made with fresh pureed mangos. The cake resembles a traditional upside down cake, but instead has a design of mangos on the plate.
“She had made a pineapple upside cake for someone’s birthday at work, and he said he loved it,” Sturt said. “We thought, hey since everyone loved cake so much, I could do same thing with mango. I didn’t even think about other recipes. That’s the one.”
This isn’t the first time he raided the family kitchen. Sturt’s been cooking since he was three years old n though his earliest efforts weren’t nearly as successful, his mother Jennifer Sturt said.
“I’d hear a chair scooting over to the counter,” she said.
Sturt interjected, “I had a big bowl of water and I was dumping in spices. I was dumping in anything I could grab. I would just grab it and dump it in.”
His mother added with a laugh, “He used up all my spices. Couple of times, I actually heated it up for him.”
Now his cooking is more conventional.
“I like making burritos. I put cheese and chicken in them, and sometimes some salsa, but my sister doesn’t like salsa. We wrap them up and put them in microwave. It’s pretty good."
And his talent has only improved since he attended a culinary camp this summer, which ultimately lead to the mango contest.
“I was given a choice of summer camp at our church or a cooking class,” he said. “I thought it would be a cool experience to go to cooking school. I could always go to camp next year.
It was at the cooking class at Central Market in Dallas that he heard about the mango cooking contest, and Sturt said he was intrigued.
“This is my first time to cook with mango,” he said. “I’ve tried mango before but never cooked with it. Mango is a tropical flavor. It doesn’t taste much like any other fruit. It’s unique.”
According to the National Mango board, mango consumption per capita has quadrupled since 1990 to an estimated 2.2 pounds per year in 2007.
Now, Sturt is always whipping up new ideas.
I like science. Cooking is like science. You’re putting ingredients together and making something better than flour alone or butter alone.
“He is constantly in the kitchen experimenting,” his mom said. “He experiments with own frappuccino. He makes his own chocolate and peanut butter popcorn. And one evening, he was making dinner n chicken rice and green beans. He mixed white and brown rice and butter. He was really making it his own. This gave him a lot of confidence to experiment more. It really built his confidence, and he’s trying even more things.”
Sturt said that he hopes that one day all of this experimenting will lead to a career.
“I was thinking it would kind of be neat to be a chef. I think it would be smart to go to a culinary school. I thought it would be neat since I like cooking.”
Sturt will get his first big break when he appears with Hoffman in the September issue of television’s video magazine Health & Home Report.
“I was really excited to cook with Ingrid. I had so much fun. She knows so much about cooking, especially about cooking with mangos,” Sturt said. “She gave me lots of good ideas so I can keep cooking with my favorite fruit.”
Visit www.mango.org/risingstar to view Sturt’s winning recipe and video.
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