A Spring Creek teen won third place in a Goya culinary competition, and News 12 was there when she accepted her prize. 

Goya staff surprised Gabriella Womack at her apartment building Tuesday with a $1,000 check as part of the competition. 

The competition offered $10,000 in scholarships. The recipes all had to include Goya products and inspire home cooks to think outside the can. Womack won the Bronze Prize with her dish. 

“Me and my mom have been going on and on to different websites and different scholarships to help me out with college,” said Womack,” I made arroz con gandules with pulpo salad and I made garlic crispy tostones to celebrate my Puerto Rican heritage.”

Dozens of students from Food and Finance High School and the Food Education Fund competed. This is the competition’s second year, and it came with big changes due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Normally our executive chef from Goya does the tasting and that's how we judge, he judges the competition ... but you know we had to do without that this time around, and the students created a cooking video that was selected. It was voted on nationally,” said Karina Sosa at Goya Foods.

Womack plans to put her prize money toward education. She plans to attend Paul Smith College in the fall to study culinary management.