COUNTYWIDE : Berry Festival Picks Top Recipe

Standing behind a table laden with strawberry salsa, strawberry soup, stuffed strawberries and strawberry tiramisu, Cynthia Mendez had a confession to make.

“These aren’t things I would normally make for myself,” said Mendez, a student in Oxnard College’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

But along with a dozen other students in the program, Mendez helped prepare most of the 17 dishes that were served up to judges Saturday at the finals of the California Strawberry Festival’s annual recipe contest.

The menu included saucy strawberry butter, strawberry won ton cups and chicken with strawberry marinade. Mendez put together a dessert called Chocolate Strawberry Monsieur, a syrupy concoction oozing across a dainty white plate and garnished with a sprig of mint. Submitted by a Miami man, it was one of 464 recipes sent in from around the world.

The students were drafted for kitchen duty because most of the entrants live too far away. But Liz Harper drove up from Hacienda Heights to toss her strawberry-orange-spinach salad for the eight judges who were inching around the U-shaped table. “I’m number four,” Harper said hopefully. “They’re still pretty hungry when they get to me. By the end, they’re not hungry anymore.”

But the judges apparently saved room for Melody Favish’s strawberries in mascarpone cream, which they awarded the grand prize--a round-trip plane ticket to Oxnard, hotel accommodations and VIP treatment at the strawberry festival May 15-16.

For Favish, it was a big prize. She lives in Oslo, Norway.

“It’s our first overseas entry, and she won,” said festival spokeswoman Aileen Stein. Favish’s dessert--which was prepared Saturday by Nicole Jenkins of Ventura--will be served at a banquet on the eve of the festival.

For information on obtaining finalist recipes, call 385-7578.