In high school, as in life, there are winners and losers.</p><p>During the last few years at Shawnee Mission North High School, Sammy Jo Claussen wasn&rsquo;t exactly on the &ldquo;winner&rdquo; track. Dyslexic and bipolar with anger issues and attention deficit disorder, the temperamental teen kept to herself. Able to read at only a fourth-grade level, she was teased by classmates and dismissed as dumb. When she wasn&rsquo;t acting up in school, she was arguing at home, where serious issues threatened to rip her family apart. </p><p>The writing seemed to be on the wall. </p><p>&ldquo;Gimme an L.&rdquo; </p><p>Funny thing about Claussen, though. She had an ace up her sleeve that would soon trump all of her troubles.</p><p>She could cook.</p><p>And she played that card earlier this year at a prestigious culinary competition. Drawing on more than 15 years of hands-on experience with her grandmother &mdash; and pushed by talented teachers &mdash; she outcooked hundreds of young chefs from around the country en route to winning a $90,000 full-ride college scholarship. And the title of &ldquo;Best Teen Chef.&rdquo;</p><p>By preparing delicious dishes with her head and her heart, she showed something to the world. And she turned her life around. Now, as she throws half a red onion and quartered zucchini on the grill at her culinary school, she can&rsquo;t stop smiling.</p><p>Look who just won. The girl with the problems, the one from the wrong side of the tracks, the brassy, moody, blunt-as-a-broom-handle 5-foot-1-inch blonde with the diamond-chip nose stud and five black tattoos. The chef who reads her cookbooks upside down. </p><p> She revels in the unlikeliness of it all. </p><p> Ha! Stereotype that, dude. </p><p> Against all odds, Claussen, 19, is now studying at the culinary school at the Art Institutes International-Kansas City, a two-story red brick specialty arts college that opened in Lenexa in October 2008.</p><p>She can&rsquo;t believe it. </p><p>&ldquo;One of my classes is $423 an hour!&rdquo; she said with wide eyes. &ldquo;When you come here, you want to pay attention to everything and make sure you&rsquo;re listening and getting good grades.&rdquo; </p><p>That wasn&rsquo;t always easy for her. Nothing was easy. </p><p>&ldquo;People, when they find out I&rsquo;m dyslexic, they think I&rsquo;m retarded,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m not. It&rsquo;s just that I learn at a really slow pace. I used to get made fun of when I was in high school. With my ADD and ADHD people would see me sitting in class not paying attention, and I&rsquo;d be twitching and stuff. And that&rsquo;s when my bipolar came out cause people would make fun of me, and I&rsquo;d get really mad and just want to knock them out.&rdquo;</p><p>She never did. Since then, medication has helped keep her temper in check and even out her moods. </p><p>Cooking always did that, too.</p><p>She cooked for her family, encouraging her mother to try new foods, and cooked for her friends. Even if she just made macaroni and cheese, they thought it was a gourmet meal. </p><p>She started cooking with her grandmother, Kay DeMott, in LaCygne, Kan., helping to make homemade meals. Food was a savior, the kitchen a refuge. So when problems hit in high school, that&rsquo;s again where she turned.</p><p> She began spending part of her days at Broadmoor Technical Center in the Shawnee Mission School District for culinary instruction. It was there she found satisfaction, and a home. Teachers, including chef Bob Brassard, helped her hone her skills and encouraged her to enter contests. She entered the Best Teen Chef contest, sponsored by the Art Institutes International. One of the requirements: Submit an original recipe.