Students in the Spanish and German clubs at South Meadow School and ConVal High School in Peterborough participated in a sixth annual Iron Chef competition on Monday.

Similarly to Iron Chef, a television show on the Food Network, students were given a “secret ingredient” that they had to incorporate into the dishes they made. This year’s ingredient was chocolate.

Nicholas Merzi, an eighth-grader at SMS, was part of Velka Pacheco-McMahon’s middle school Spanish group. Merzi said their menu consisted of a chocolate chicken mole, a chocolate cookie with a cream cheese frosting topped with a strawberry, and an iced chocolate drink. The menu ended up taking first place in the competition, which was announced near the end of the event.  

Merzi said he doesn’t cook that much in his free time, but even before the winner was announced, Merzi said he felt like his team had a good chance of taking home the top prize. 

The group burst into cheers and gave each other hugs after their name was announced.  

ConVal High School’s German Club took second in the competition. 

Hayley Munroe, a tenth grader, was part of the high school’s German team. She said their menu consisted of German meatballs drizzled with chocolate and black forest pork with a cherry sauce. 

“The hardest part was finding food that was traditional with German culture and mixing it with chocolate,” Munroe said. 

Pacheco-McMahon said she enjoys the event every year because it integrates high school and middle schoolers together. 

“There’s lots of collaboration and it allows students to become familiar with different modern languages,” Pacheco-McMahon said during the event.