On Friday, January 25, ETA Ryan Ulrich was waiting outside his residence for a fellow teacher, who was going to give him a lift to school. Ryan teaches at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Gresik as an English teacher. When the car arrived and Ryan got in, his colleague, Mr. Ali, asked him if he would help judge a food competition being held at the school.

Ryan agreed since this was a prime opportunity to experience a variety of Indonesian dishes. Arriving at the school, he found the 12^th-grade students hard at work preparing their meals. Ryan had the opportunity to see all the hard work that went into the preparation of the dishes, from origiri, to chicken teriyaki dumplings. Needless to say, Ryan was impressed with the level of culinary skills he saw on display and hopefully picked up some tips along the way!

As a judge, Ryan had to evaluate a number of factors, from preparation and taste to presentation and originality. The preparation was a particularly difficult section to judge, as Ryan had no frame of reference for most of the dishes. In the end, the winner was a group of four who prepared a fried rice dish topped with shrimp. The taste and originality were satisfactory, but what really set the dish apart from the crowd was its presentation. The dish seemed as if it belonged in a five-star French restaurant, rather than on a wooden table in the middle of a high school. Needless to say, this was a fun tasty experience for Ryan.
Ryan Ulrich is currently teaching at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Gresik, East Java