Many Steinbrenner students are actively involved in Culinary, but only five were chosen to go to a national competition and compete as a cooking team in one of the most challenging culinary competitions offered to high school students. Senior Dylan Tyler, senior Ola Baulos , senior Kearston Degolye, senior Krisztian Fedor, and junior Cristopher De Jesus combined their skills and competed against other Florida schools in this competition.
The competition was primarily sponsored by Johnson and Wales University, the “College of Culinary Arts” and held at the ‘Rosen Plaza Hotel’ in Orlando.
The students competed in multiple competitions, including one where they had 60 minutes in a 10 foot by 10 foot square with two provided B-10 burners to make a three course meal with six dishes. Two dishes of the same course are made, one for presentation and the other for consumption for judges selected from around the state.
“There’s four knife cuts that have to be perfect and you have to break down two chickens, those have to be perfect and all those have to be enveloped into your meal. It’s very stressful because there’s five or six judges always watching you,” said Fedor who plans on attending HCC to become a chef.
Judgement is based off the presented dish, cleanliness, safety, difficulty, cooking process, and how well it would fit into a real restaurant scenario (including pricing).37 schools competed for a chance to win a $10,000 scholarship. Steinbrenner came in fifth and all members received all five stars for the first time ever for their knife cuts and poultry fabrication.
Ariel Cox// Centerspread Editor
