ProStart high school students walk away with culinary honors. Video and snaps

Imagine yourself 15 years old, dreaming of a career in the culinary world but where do you go to follow this dream. Across the country there are high schools offering a program called ProStart which allows these dreamers to make dreams a reality. These ‘wanna cook’ kids are able to make their dreams come true early.

Students who remain with the ProStart program are fully equipped to go out into the hospitality workforce and get a job. Many go forward to expand their education to Johnson and Wales, Culinary Institute of America, regional culinary schools like L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD or community college based programs.The program also allows the students at an earlier age to determine if the hospitality industry is their path.

ProStart isn’t just cooking it is management as well. This year they raised the stakes on the management team. The students had to create a restaurant, a business plan, a viable business. They too were judged, critiqued and scrutinized by marketing and hospitality professionals.(check out photo slide show and video below showing the day in the life of ProStart team in competition)

Toto dreams do come true

Three years ago I met two sophomores at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Towson, Maryland, a ProStart high school, while mentoring their culinary team for Maryland State ProStart competition. Their dream then was to be on the competition team when they were seniors. One of these students made alternate in his sophomore year. The other was at practices and the note taker when chef/instructor quipped “mark down recessed spatula and two more cutting boards.”  (read related story Love Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen and Chopped )

2010 Competition and snowpocalypse

The ProStart competition takes hours of practice and this year in Maryland the students lost a great deal of practice time due to the snow and school being closed. The loss of practice time was across the board for all the teams competing yesterday. A snowy, icy morning  didn’t hamper teams from making it to Greenbelt, Maryland for the state competition even with one of the major highway routes closed.

One hour writes your fate

For the winning team comes the pride and recognition but also valuable scholarship dollars and a chance to go to Kansas for the National ProStart competition. The students competed in a large hall at staggered times with culinary judges asking questions while they are focusing on their three course menu. They are judged on knife skills, breaking down a chicken and finally the one hour to create a three course meal with only two butane burners – no electricity, no oven and no battery operated equipment.

State competition was an emotional day for the instructor, mentors, students and parents. Carver Center of Arts and Technology students just made time with their plating; they had one second left on the clock. When you look at the video below you will see I couldn’t even film the last 30 seconds the tension was so high.

Carver Center for Arts and Technology ProStart Teams

Instructor: Bette Mullins

Management Team:
Timothy Ayd
Thomas Burch
Eric Epstein
Elly Girbach
Tanisha Wells

Mentor: Gail Furman

Culinary Team:
David Adashek
Max Bushuyev
Ross Cole
Sammy Guntner
Ashylyn Hocker

Mentors:
Dara Bunjon
Chef Benjamin Gordon
Chef John Johnson

Video and photographs ©Dara Bunjon    Feel free to reach out to me at nationalexaminer@diningdish.otherinbox.com or follow me on Twitter @daracooks.  For your convenience have my posts delivered directly to your e-mail in-box by clicking on the subscribe button at the top of the post.  Please feel free to read my Dining Column as well.