Young chef needs your vote for school makeover

MATAMORAS — Riley Smith and his brother Brody of Matamoras have entered the Uncle Ben's Beginners Cooking Contest, are asking the community to help put them in the top 25 finalists by voting daily for their video.

If selected as one of the five Grand Prize winners, the boys will receive $15,000 in cash and a $30,000 cafeteria makeover for Delaware Valley Elementary School.

The boys' video takes viewers through the steps in making "Riley's Rockin' Stuffed Peppers."

The contest encourages children to make healthier meal choices by getting them interested in cooking at an early age. It also encourages parents to connect with their children, one meal at a time, to make cooking an enjoyable activity that brings families together.

Parents with children in kindergarten through eighth grade submitted three-minute home videos showing the family together in the kitchen cooking a rice-based dish and discussing their experience cooking together. The contest received hundreds of entries from families across the United States.

Riley is a seven-year-old aspiring chef who loves to be in the kitchen with his mom. He scours cookbooks for fun new recipes and watches the Food Network more than he watches the Cartoon Network. He has an adventurous palette and never shies away from trying new food. Riley loves mushrooms, artichokes, flounder, baby octopus — you name it, he will try it. He's even eaten chocolate-covered bugs!

His big brother Brody is right by his side on his culinary pursuits, happily scarfing down everything Riley prepares.

Riley and Brody are asking the community to help put them in the top 25 finalists by voting daily for their video. To watch and vote for the Smith Boys, please visit unclebens.com, click on Ben's Beginners, and search for "Riley's Rockin' Stuffed Peppers" in the gallery. Votes may be cast daily from Oct. 15 through Nov. 3.