Belton High School’s “Top Chefs”

by Carl D. Burleigh Friday, March 19, 2010

 Competing against other top teams from a region that includes the Dallas, Houston, and Austin areas, the BHS Culinary team secured 1st place at the ProStart Regional culinary competition, taking them forward to the state competition on Saturday, March 6.


With only a week to prepare for the state competition after their top-notch performance at regional, the Belton High School Culinary Team garnered an honorable and accomplished third place at state in what turned out to be a tight competition.

“One of the judges told me that there was only a five point difference between 1st and 3rd,” said BHA culinary team member Jackson Mitchell. “It was very close.”

As related by the Belton High School Culinary Team, the competition involved more than just simply serving food. Every step of the process, from the transport of ingredients to the site to techniques used in the food preparation to presentation was heavily scrutinized by judges and rated from 1 point (poor) to 5 (excellent). The competition also required the students to budget their food costs and provide a menu for their end products that reflected what it would be like in a real world restaurant setting.

“Everything on the menu was cost evaluated and increased by 33%,” said Daniel Combs, explaining the suggested costs on the menu that the team presented to judges during the competition.

As related by Combs, the culinary team prepared the same menu at the state level competition as they had at regional, taking the advice of judges to fine tune and tweak their dishes’ content and presentation to further perfection.

“Dessert was a cheesecake rolled up like a sushi roll,” said Combs. “One of the judges at regional said I should strain the sauce before putting it on the roll. I strained it at state.”

Team member Aaron Gross also noted a slight change to their food’s final presentation, the team changing out some of the cutting techniques, going from sliced to diced tomatoes in their starter of a “Reinvented Wedge Salad” at state.

With all the details involved in the competition, the issue of perfect timing, as related by the team, was seen as the most crucial element.

“Finishing on time was probably the biggest thing at State,” said Combs. “At regional, half of the teams did not finish on time.”

Mitchell noted that at the state competition, on of the teams working in the same kitchen area as BHS finished four minutes late, costing that team four points.

“Every minute late is one point off,” said Mitchell.

“Ten minutes late is a DQ (disqualification),” added Combs.

However much time-related stressors were involved, the BHS Culinary Team felt that the most intense moments of their experience at state revolved around losing the mascarpone cheese they had transported as the main ingredient of their cheesecake dessert. Judges determined that the cheese’s internal temperature upon arrival was one degree too high, causing culinary instructor Kay Lewis to make an emergency trip to HEB to replace the ingredient before competition – not just once, but twice. The second attempt was finally approved by the judges.

Kay Lewis, culinary arts and vocational homemaking instructor at BHS, was quite pleased with her students’ accomplishments, noting their hard work and dedication brought them to success. Like her students, she is no stranger to accomplishment. Lewis was recently recognized at the BISD meeting Monday of Jan. 18 for having received the Channel 10 KWTX Golden Apple Award on Nov. 19. Lewis was nominated by student Daniel Combs. Josh Wucher with Channel 10 came to BHS to make the presentation in Kay’s classroom with her students and a large group of administrators present.

Currently, both Daniel Combs and Aaron Gross have been accepted to the Culinary Institute of America upon graduation from BHS. Madelyn Roop and Jackson Mitchell both have pending applications with the C.I.A. and have also been accepted to the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin. Team member Esther Kuo, who is in her junior year at BHS, hopes to graduate early and eventually be accepted into a post-secondary culinary program as well.
Source
===============================
Being competitive will make you a better student just like in culinary arts.