On September 19, 2025, Ridgeview High School won the esteemed Chopped Challenge held at the Kern County Fair. In an impressive culinary battle against various Kern high schools, Ridgeview representative Hailie Burnett and Kern High School District Chef Brandon Sullivan teamed up to create a rich theme of a “Taste of Spain.” They took home a close, but mighty win, scoring one point above the second-place team.
Chef Brandon Sullivan, a participant of the Chopped Challenge since its debut last year, spoke about his feelings leading up to the big day. “Some students want to go into the culinary field…You can see their enthusiasm when the contest starts, and it’s exciting for me to see that,” Sullivan said. While he admits to taking the loss last year, Sullivan emphasized the true importance of the challenge, explaining, “The winning part would be nice…but no matter what, at the end of the day, if my partner and the other students that are competing have a great night…and learn something, and just enjoy themselves, it’s a win-win.” Sullivan concludes by encouraging students and future chefs to partake in the Chopped Challenge, expressing, “I want to make sure that other students can see this, this is not going to go away…This challenge is going to keep on going…so if Ridgeview students want to participate, keep looking at it!”
Senior Hailie Burnett, another returning competitor, states, “[The challenge] has shown me a lot of working under stress skills, like to always be patient.” Although this was her second year as a student representative, she confesses to not expecting the difficulty of the event, admitting, “My initial expectations going into the contest [were] that it wasn’t going to be as hard as it was…but once you get the flow of it you get the flow of it…and it becomes a lot of fun.” When asked about her reaction to winning the challenge, she revealed, “I was very, very excited…Overall, it was my last year, and I’m going out with a win!”
Partnered up both this and last year, Burnett and Sullivan made history as a dynamic duo. The teammates graciously accepted the Chopped Challenge first-place award on the exciting night, with Burnett exclaiming, “It’s very crazy, and I feel like I’ve worked so hard, but everybody else did too, and I’m so proud of everybody!”
