ProStart Competition
Students Involved:
Arlan Engin
Brittany Ruiz
Steve Woo
Chris Porter
Meagan Silverman
Bavley Mobarak
Lucy Zelaya
Samantha Gaytan
Genesis Velasco
Michael Kreidamn
Mae Gleeson
Sandra Barrera
In a stunning display of team-work, tenacity, and creativity this group of advanced culinary students performed admirably at the 15th annual ProStart competition. It all started about 5 weeks ago when LACES was adopted by the California Restaurant Association. This adoption makes us an enhanced school. The enhancement provides many (otherwise unavailable) educational opportunities for the culinary students and the teacher. One of these opportunities is the ProStart competition. Most schools form their teams and practice from the beginning of the school year until the competition in March. Because of our late adoption we only formed our teams 5 weeks ago. The LACES students were so determined that they did in five weeks what takes most other schools months to accomplish.
ProStart offers two different opportunities to compete. There is the culinary cup sponsored by Boyd’s Coffee and the management competition which is sponsored by BJ’s restaurant. For the culinary competition students must design their own menu including an appetizer, main dish, starchy side, vegetable side, and a dessert. The entire meal must be cooked and presented in one hour. For the management competition students must design a restaurant concept from start to finish and then present their ideas to real-world restaurant investors.
This was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have had as a culinary teacher. My students made me incredibly proud! We owe a huge thank you to the chapter of the California restaurant association who adopted us. This would never have been possible without their support.