Iron Chef en el Estilo de Severn School!

A tip of the hat to the popular competition cooking show Iron Chef, Severn Upper School AP Spanish students teamed up with advanced photography and video students in Digital Media to film and photograph mock episodes of Iron Chef … entirely en Español! Staged in our very own Head of School Lagarde’s home kitchen, the project was a lesson in food, language, and digital arts.

Why Iron Chef … in Spanish?

Part of the AP curriculum explores cooking and the history of New World foods. In AP Spanish, every lesson is taught entirely in Spanish, teacher and students alike. So why not inspire students to learn about New World foods and demonstrate their fluency at the same time? One part cooking plus one part language equals an educational recipe for success!
Severn School students stage a cooking demonstration and photograph it.
Photographer Emma Agro ‘20 and chef Jillian North ‘19
For this project, Upper School Spanish teacher Mr. Bob Campuzano asked his students to select recipes that involve foods of the New World — potatoes, tomatoes, chile, and chocolate to name a few. The first part of their assignment is to study the history of that food and the area from which it originates. They then have to memorize the recipe and prepare the actual food while describing each step on video as if they were on a cooking show, a complex task to accomplish. In order to complete this assignment well, students can’t simply memorize their whole presentation. They can create a script and practice, but must also be ready to adapt to whatever happens in the kitchen. They have to really engage with the vocabulary and use colorful language to describe their dishes — demonstrating organization, fluency, and pronunciation all while making eye contact with and entertaining the video audience.
“In the real world, you can’t expect conversations to move slowly and to translate every word as you speak or hear it. You have to open your mind and really absorb the vocabulary so you can use it in different situations. The chapter in our book may be about cooking, but I want my students to use that cooking vocabulary outside of the classroom, to use it in a real setting and learn how they need to adapt.” — Mr. Campuzano
Severn School students film a cooking demonstration.
Photographer Will Heard ‘20 and chef Ty Benz ‘19

Lights, Camera, Cooking!

What would a real cooking show be without a photography crew? Ms. Cassandra Kapsos’s Digital Media students were “on set” during the cooking demonstrations to document the day. They arrived early to set up studio lighting for shooting stills of the prepared meals but also took candid shots of the AP Spanish students as they presented. Although the kitchen was large, they had to navigate around the crowd to get just the right shot, adapting their technique as the situation called for. For this spring semester class only a few weeks in, Ms. Kapsos is already pushing her students to expand their creativity and understanding of technique. Their first project involved taking outdoor photos to capture shapes, lines, and color — the basic elements of art — in nature. This project builds upon that, challenging them to use purposeful composition, shadows, and light to bring out the beauty of their subjects in an indoor studio space.
“This is the second year we’ve done this collaboration. Last year our students shot this with black and white film photography, this year my more advanced classes are using color and studio lighting techniques to capture it. Every year we build and try to expand this project. I’m hoping in the future that we can put together a cookbook that shows the student chefs along with images of the food and recipes.” — Ms. Kapsos
Photo of a taco.
Sample of student photography.
Photo of pizza.
Sample of student photography.


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