JUNIOR CHEF

On behalf of Commissioner Jonathan Shell, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture would like to invite you to join our annual Kentucky Farm to School Junior Chef competition. This is a statewide high school cooking competition designed to offer youth the opportunity to learn valuable skills in recipe development, food preparation, marketing, public presentation, organization, teamwork and community involvement. Additionally, the program will stimulate interest in local agriculture, create a nontraditional market for Kentucky producers, increase quality of products available to school cafeterias, and ultimately increase consumption of produce by Kentucky’s students. A full copy of rules and information can be found on our website listed below. I encourage you to put a team together and come join the fun!

For more details on the Junior Chef program competition click here.

2025 Junior Chef Competition


Hello everyone,

It’s time to gear up for Junior Chef 2025! We’ve made some exciting updates to this year’s schedule.

The 2025 Junior Chef Competition will take place November 13–15 at the Lexington Sullivan Campus (exact times will be announced once team numbers are finalized).


To help coaches and team leaders prepare, we’re hosting three Junior Chef workshops across the state. These sessions will cover:


Attendance is required for coaches and team leaders at one workshop of their choice. If you cannot attend in person but have a team interested in participating, please contact us so we can arrange a virtual session via TEAMS.


Each workshop will last about two hours, with locations spread across the state for convenience.


We can’t wait to see your creativity and talent in the kitchen this year!