Budding chef Maria Boucher to compete in New York City

Date: 3/8/2010

March 8, 2010

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW - Peanut butter is bringing Maria Boucher and her family to New York City later this month, as Maria competes as a top five finalist in the Eighth Annual Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest.

The top five finalists will face each other hoping to earn a $25,000 college scholarship fund and bragging rights as creator of this year's "Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich." The four runners-up will each receive a $2,500 scholarship.

"It's been really fun, the whole process of it," Maria said. "I told everybody about it, all my friends at school, over the radio. We made posters."

The process that Maria spoke of isn't just making her now famous "Peanutty Cristo Breakfast Sandwich" - in order to be named to the top five in the contest, she had to receive online votes from participants across the country.

"We were delighted to hear she had been chosen," Beth Boucher, mom to the 11-year-old Maria, said. "It was late in the day on Wednesday [Feb. 24] and every time the phone rang, we'd wonder if this was it [a call from Jif]. We were ecstatic, to say the least."

Maria told Reminder Publications that she's excited to go to New York City for the contest. "I think my sandwich could win," she said.

"We would love for her to win the big prize but just to go down there and have the experience is great too," Beth added. The entire Boucher family will be traveling to the Big Apple together for the final part of the competition.

Maria said participating in the contest to find the "Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich" has made her help out in the kitchen more, and she added, "I just really like cooking."

Both Maria and her mom want to thank everyone who voted for Maria and her sandwich in the contest.

"We've been overwhelmed with support from the community," Beth said.

On March 19, the five finalists will put their creativity to the test and debut their peanut butter sandwiches for a panel of judges at the Culinary Loft in New York City. Each child will demonstrate how to prepare the sandwich he or she has created and judges will rate each sandwich based on creativity, nutritional balance, taste, appearance and ease of preparation.

For the top five sandwich recipes, visit www.jif.com.