WASHINGTON (TIP): Six Indian-American kid chefs have been honored for their fabulous culinary skills by US First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House’s “Kids State Dinner” as part of her initiative to tackle obesity and promote healthy eating among American children. Anisha Patel from Ohio, Ganesh Selvakumar from Pennsylvania; Devanshi H Udeshi from Texas; Emma Scielzo from Maryland, Vijay I Dey from North Carolina and Shefali Singh from Massachusetts were among 54 children invited by the First Lady for the event at the White House yesterday where they also had a chance encounter with President Barack Obama.

“Now, first of all, usually at a state dinner, I get invited. So I don’t know what happened on this one — somehow the invitation slipped through somewhere. But it looks like you guys are having fun,” the President said amid laughter. Selected from over 13,000 contestants nationwide, the six Indian Americans probably constituted the largest number of kids from any ethnic group.

So far, Indian Americans have been known for winning various science and math competitions and those like Spelling Bee and Geography Bee. “And we’re really proud of you winning this challenge — because, frankly, I’m not a great cook and — I’m not bad, but I don’t do it that much. Its hard to find the time,” the President said. “But when I do cook, I’m following a recipe.

And to think that all of you have invented all this fabulous food just shows how creative you are and it shows that food that tastes good can be healthy, too,” Obama said. 10-year old Emma Scielzo, a third generation Indian American who attributes her winning recipe of “Chicken Masala Wrap” to her Indian grandparents who immigrated to the US several decades ago from Punjab, was one of three children who were selected to shoot short cooking videos.