ProStart Students Cooked up a Storm on Competition Day

This past Tuesday student’s competed in the Prostart Culinary Competition. Student’s were divided into either a Management or Culinary Team from the Culinary Arts class, with teams having different purposes in the competition.

The Culinary Team was awarded the “best use of chocolate” award for their dessert and the Management Team came in second place overall, taking home some scholarship opportunities.

Culinary Arts teacher Kayla Correll describes the meals cooked by the Culinary Team.

“The Culinary Team prepared a three course meal that consisted of a fried scallop, strawberry salsa appetizer, tuna steak with saffron orzo, and an oriental kale entree. Their dessert was a double layer chocolate cake with mascarpone cream and chocolate ganache.”

A chief from both the Culinary and the Management team, senior Sally Kalchbrenner prepared the “top” to the food.

“My job was to make the entree. I had to prepare the salsa that topped the dish, cook and finish the orzo, prep the oriental kale and peppers for Duncan [Sanders] to cook, make the sauce that went on the tuna, and finally crust and sear the tuna,” Kalchbrenner said.

Senior Duncan Sanders, also a member of both the Management and the Culinary Team, explained his role.

“I was in charge of the appetizer which included making scallops, arugula salad, and strawberry salsa,” he said.

Correll explains the criteria the judges looked at.

“With one hour to prepare a three course meal, teams of four students are judged on knife skills, teamwork, sanitation, safety, menu presentation, and taste,” she said.

Students have practiced the meal they made for this event since January, so students have had a lot of practice. For the competition, chefs were not allowed to use a recipe. With that, Kalchbrenner believes that the judges liked their dish.

“The entree judge really seemed to like my dish. He said that the presentation was great and he found minimal errors,” she said.

However, Sanders believes that there is room for improvement.

“We could have had more practice and done more menu development,” he said.

Kalchbrenner describes the critiques they got from judges.

“One of the critiques the judge gave me was to season the fish more, so I would add a little salt to the chia seeds before I would crust the tuna,” she explained.

Correll explains the role of the Management team.

“The Management team created a restaurant concept and put together a business proposal to present to a panel of potential investors. Their concept was a quick-service chili themed restaurant on a college campus,” said Correll. “Teams of four students created posters, answered critical thinking questions, and presented their concept to judges.

Correll also describes the Management Team’s role with the Spicy Asian Chili and procedure.

“The Sweet and Spicy Asian Chili was one of the menu items on the management team’s restaurant concept. The management team made this dish at school, photographed it, and included it in their business proposal so judges could see what this dish would look like to customers,” she said.

Sanders enjoyed the practice it took to get to where they did and was happy to be a part of it.

“We started by looking up recipes and then changing them to add new components and just kept developing new ideas. I enjoyed getting to put all of our practice into our performance and we took second in Management,” Sanders said.

Correll is pleased with how the student’s performed.

“The competition went great! All of our students made it on the stage this year to receive an award. Everyone had fun and experienced a lot to prepare them for their future and that is the ultimate goal.”

Kalchbrenner was ecstatic in being a part of the team and had more fun experiencing first hand.

“The competition was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Last year I wasn’t on the team so on the competition day all I did was watch, but this year being on the team was a whole different experience. I really enjoyed this competition,” she said.