Top Chef Event for Foreign Language Students at Woodlands Academy

Approximately 40 middle-school-age girls from several Chicago area communities got a "taste" of the foreign language they're studying during Top Chef International hosted by Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart Feb. 20. Student chefs studying Spanish, French and Latin at their respective schools enjoyed a sit-down international meal including the dishes they helped create at the all-girls college prep high school in Lake Forest.

Top Chef International, a language-immersion cooking experience, provided a Saturday morning full of activities - all in the languages the visiting middle school girls are studying. Participants experienced these other cultures through food and fellowship with the goal of achieving a new appreciation for the language they are studying.

Woodlands Academy provided guests with chef's hats, aprons and recipe books to take home as mementos of the event.

Tours of the school also were available to the visiting students and their parents. In addition to Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, Top Chef International participants came from several communities including Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Great Lakes, Gurnee, Libertyville, Vernon Hills, Waukegan and Winnetka.

Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women. It's part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org