Kelly's Fund is proud to partner with Paramount Schools of Excellence and the World Food Championships for this one-night event. A truly unique culinary opportunity, the Perfect Bite Championship is a tasting extravaganza featuring exclusive access to perfected flavors from 20 of the region's best cooks. The evening also features dynamic drinks, silent auction, and open bar.

Interpreted in the unique culinary styles of Indiana's top chefs, this memorable food event features 20 perfectly-catered individual bites, with attendees voting their favorite "perfect bite" into the finals, where six chefs will battle head to head in a "perfect plate challenge" to determine three category winners.

The Perfect Bite Championship is limited to 175 guests.

VIP ACCESS: Exclusive to Kelly's Fund patrons, VIP Access to the Perfect Bite Championships can only had though the VIP link below.

On September 21, 2025, Junior Chefs from local culinary programs descend on the Paramount Brookside campus to compete in a perfect bite challenge. The Perfect Bite Junior Championships are a World Food Championships sanctioned qualifying event. The age limit for competition is 11-17, allowing both middle school and high school students to participate.

If your culinary student would like to compete, or if you are a culinary coach and your would like to nominate students for competition, please fill out the application form below.

Competition Rules

The Junior Chef Academy was developed to address food insecurity at the source: our children.

In 2022, conversations with the World Food Championships helped pave a pathway for young culinary beginners in middle school to learn the skills needed to compete on a world stage. This pathway would generate interest and talent in youth while using food sports as a gateway to healthier eating habits, crossover skills in the home kitchen, and future culinary careers.

The Junior Chef Academy launched in March of 2023 with 50 middle school applicants. Twenty of those students would make the initial cut and begin a 9 month journey that would qualify at least one of them for them World Food Championships. Nine months after it began, Junior Chef Academy student, Tony Fernandez, became the Junior World Champion! Now the program is expanding, currently serving three sites with the help of program Executive Director, Ross Katz, and Program Chef Youssef Boudarine.

Kelly's Fund proudly supports this annual program along with Team Indiana and Paramount Schools of Excellence. The Junior Chef Academy is still seeking additional partnerships, donations, and sponsorships to elevate the existing program and grow others like it.

In 2023, every meeting of the Junior Chef Academy was filmed as an episode. Now you can follow the journey from the beginning classes to the World Championships for our inaugural JCA Students! Each video is linked below.