Students in the TECC-West Culinary Arts program recently competed in the campus level of Aramark Student Nutrition’s Culinary Star competition. The winning team, composed of three program veterans, will advance to the national level of the culinary contest hosted in Houston on February 9. The winning team will take home a scholarship.
In a true example of “iron sharpens iron,” the TECC-West event pitted four teams of three student chefs, each hand-selected during a grueling preliminary process, against each other to create their best version of a vegetarian lunch. Of course, there was an Iron Chef-inspired twist: secret ingredients were revealed during the competition which the teams were required to incorporate into their dish.
With 15 minutes to prep, 30 to cook and an additional 20 to finish and plate, each team presented masterfully-crafted dishes to the expert panel of judges, including: Ben Hernandez, Aramark Regional Culinary Director; Paige Meloni, LISD CFO; Kim Stafford, LISD Child Nutrition Director of Operations; and Jeremy Turner, LISD Manager of Contract Services. Judges rated each dish based on appearance, taste, degree of difficulty and usage of the secret ingredients, as well as workstation cleanliness and proper usage of tools and techniques.
Once the final scores were tabulated, the winning team consisting of captain Wren Phillips, a junior at Lewisville High School, Karleigh Cluck, junior at Marcus High School and Jacob Collins, senior at The Colony High School emerged victorious. The winning dish, an Asian street food-inspired sweet and spicy lettuce wrap with tofu, chipotle buttered brussels sprouts and a spicy glazed potato, received high marks across the board from the judging panel.
Phillips was ecstatic with her team’s performance.
“We’ve been planning this for weeks. We didn’t know what we were going to do with the secret ingredients but we were able to figure it out pretty fast -- It feels pretty great to win!”
The winners’ next stop will be Houston in February, where they will take on champions from other competitions across the nation. TECC-West brought home the crown for LISD after the previous contest, and the student chefs are looking forward to defending the title.
“I’ve never really been anywhere,” expressed Cluck, “so I’m excited to get to go to Houston in general. It’ll be fun to get to travel with Chef [DeRosa] and our team.”
“I’m looking forward to possibly winning the competition and working with this team and having a good time,” said Collins.
Collins, a senior at TCHS, is also already looking ahead to future opportunities after graduation.
“It’s really fun to have this opportunity. I’ve always wanted to get into culinary, so when I saw this program I thought ‘let’s give it a shot’ and it’s worked out and I’m really happy to be here. I’ve already gotten into college for culinary, so I’m going to pursue that and hopefully own a restaurant later in life.”
Alberto Garcia, LISD Child Nutrition District Manager, sees programs such as TECC-West Culinary Arts and contests like Culinary Star as great opportunities to showcase student talents and continue to strengthen the partnership between LISD and Aramark.
“The Aramark, TECC West and LISD partnership is strong and long standing. Aramark Student Nutrition’s goal is to power student potential through food and strategic partnerships. Events like the Culinary Star competition, give students the platform to demonstrate the skills they have acquired through vigorous trainings. Coordinating this event demonstrated Aramark Student Nutrition’s commitment toward student success and dedication to culinary excellence.”
Students and families wishing to explore Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities such as the culinary arts program are invited to attend one of the upcoming LISD CTE Community Nights at the TECC-East campus (January 18, 2024) and at the TECC-West campus (February 1, 2024).
Watch LISD Child Nutrition's event recap below:
The mission of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department in the Lewisville Independent School District is to provide a quality educational program that enables all individuals to achieve their fullest potential in the pursuit of high-skill employment and advanced education. Check out the CTE website or visit Best Schools in Texas for more information about joining the Lewisville ISD family.
