Aspiring Chefs Serve Winning Recipes to JBSS Corporate Board

Elgin Community College (ECC) culinary students recently won scholarship money from John B. Sanfilippo & Son, (NASDAQ: JBSS), owner of the Fisher Nuts brand, www.fishernuts.com, while treating board members to delicious recipe contest creations that featured Fisher Nuts.

The finalists, three in each of five food categories, were chosen from among 100 ECC students who submitted recipes. Food categories included: bread, appetizers, salad, protein and dessert. Fisher Nuts, an Elgin-based JBSS brand, provided nuts that the students used in their recipes.

The overall winner, Bernard LoMonaco of Bartlett, won the grand prize and $1,000 in scholarship money for his duck and goat cheese-filled walnut ravioli.

Three students competed in each category with the winner of each category receiving a $500 scholarship from JBSS. The category winners and their hometowns are:

• Donna Olson, Elgin - bread

• Sue Welch, Palatine – appetizer

• Tony Gomez, Crystal Lake – salad

• Bernard LoMonaco, Bartlett – pasta

• Harry Park, Lake in the Hills – protein

• Diana Browder, Rockford - dessert

Among the 23 guest judges were Former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, JBSS CEO Jeffrey Sanfilippo and ECC President David Sam, PhD, JD. "ECC is in our own backyard, so it’s only natural for Fisher Nuts to team up with its aspiring student chefs to develop recipes using Fisher Nuts Naturals,” says Sanfilippo. "This offered them not only the ability to expand their creative minds, but also possibly win a scholarship.

Jill Russell, head of the ECC culinary arts and hospitality program, added that the competition "was an amazing experience for our students. They not only got to showcase their dishes for the community, but they also got to present and describe them to the judges. Those are important skills for a chef to have. "

John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., (NASDAQ: JBSS), founded in 1922, is a leading processor, marketer and distributor of nut based snacking solutions that are sold in multiple distribution channels. Their products can be found under the company’s Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest and Sunshine Country brand names and under a variety of private labels.

JBSS is committed to helping to protect the environment through various initiatives including energy reduction and packaging that uses plant-based renewable resources in select products. For more information about Fisher products visit www.fishernuts.com. Join our Facebook Fan community at http://www.facebook.com/fishernutsbrand.