The Culinary Battle of the Middle Schools was held on Thursday between Eagle Valley and Carson Middle School.
Both the students and judges, including 1 News Nevada's Ryan Canaday, gathered at Carson Middle School.
The winning dish was a prime rib teriyaki bowl by one of the three Eagle Valley teams.
There were six teams in total working to see who could create the best culinary masterpiece.
Francisco Garcia Mondragon, culinary teacher at Eagle Valley Middle School, told us the students have been working on this dish all school year.
"I've been working on this since day one in school. Okay. About maybe two months ago, when the competition was announced, the students chose the recipe, and they've had a couple of opportunities to perfect the dish."
He said each dish has a set of requirements that have to be met.
"So their choices were beef, chicken, or a vegetarian option, and it was their protein, a starch, and a vegetable on their plate. And the sauce as well. They had their budget, which was $50 per dish, and they had to create two identical dishes for the judges to judge."
He also says this competition goes way farther than the classroom.
"Oh, every life skill, communication, organization, safety, creativity, teamwork, you name it. Everything is being practiced in there right now," he said.
We also spoke with a student from one of the six teams.
Christian Putnam, who is in 8th grade, told us what they made: "We made chicken katsu served over rice with a sriracha mayo, a katsu sauce, and a side of vegetables. It took planning by, like, highlighting our recipes to see who's doing what, and we kind of just split up the test between our team."
"We were originally going to do a salmon bowl, but then we were told we can't do fish. So we just settled on another kind of this that involves rice and is kind of Asian-style. So we did chicken katsu," he said.
He also told us more about the experience during the competition.
"It was definitely a little complicated and nerve-wracking, but my team, we pulled it off, and we finished in time."
Putnam also told us how the competition changes his outlook on cooking: "I feel like I was way more invested in cooking in general, because I didn't really like cooking. But this year kind of changed my mindset on that."
