"Ganache" and "provencale" aren't words you hear every day, but they're in the vocabulary of four Glenn Hills High students who are the reigning champions of the culinary competition among Richmond County high schools.

Seniors Thomas Jacobs, 19, Aveda Wright, 17, and twins Erica and Keandra Ruffin, 18, won the overall competition with an appetizer of scampi provencale; their entree, rosemary rack of lamb with mint jelly; and their dessert, chocolate ganache with raspberries and hazelnuts.

Thomas, who recruited the other members of the Glenn Hills team, has been a cook and dishwasher at Brandon Wilde retirement community for two years.

His dream is to have a show on the Food Network.

"Cooking with Thomas Jacobs, " Aveda said jokingly.

The four have a few years of cooking under their aprons: Thomas started at age 12, the twins at 13 and Aveda as a little girl in the kitchen with her grandmother. They have honed their specialties through the years -- Thomas can make a mean chicken bruschetta, while the twins prefer baking and Aveda loves to fry and bake.

The Ruffins want to open a "sugar shack" serving sweets, and Aveda wants to someday open her own restaurant.

Despite their devotion to cooking, they didn't think they had performed well enough to win the competition.

"We thought everything went wrong," Thomas said. Time management caused the team to feel rushed.

The judges -- Deborah Moreno, an instructor of culinary arts at Augusta Technical College; David LaFrance, the executive chef of The Pinnacle Club; Heinz Sowinski, of La Maison on Telfair; and R.B. Burley, the chef of Doubletree Hotel Augusta -- kept score at the Feb. 25 event. The competitors also included teams from Cross Creek High School, Butler High School and the Academy of Richmond County.

The judges said they were impressed with the Glenn Hills team's daring in taking on lamb rather than pork or chicken, and with their coming in on a day there was no school to compete.

Reach Sarah Day Owen at (706) 823-3223 or sarah.owen@augustachronicle.com.