FS Prep/ProStart State Invitational
 

State Competition Winners

Culinary

First Place        Wylie High School, Wylie, Texas

Second Place    Westside High School, Houston, Texas

Third Place       Belton High School, Belton, Texas

Management

First Place        Wylie High School, Wylie, Texas

Second Place    San Angelo Central High School, San Angelo, Texas

Third Place       Belton High School, Belton, Texas

Regional Competition Winners

Dallas

First Place       Wylie High School, Wylie, Texas

Second Place   Duncanville High School, Duncanville, Texas

Third Place        Mansfield ISD, Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, Mansfield, Texas

Houston

First Place        Alief Hastings High School, Houston, Texas

Second Place    Westside High School, Houston, Texas

Third Place       Miller Career & Technology Center, Katy, Texas

Austin

First Place        Belton High School, Belton, Texas

Second Place    San Angelo Central High School, San Angelo, Texas

Third Place       John Jay High School, San Antonio, Texas

 

---

Austin, Texas – On March 6, nine high school culinary arts teams and three high school restaurant management teams met in Austin at the Texas Culinary Academy to compete in the Texas FSPrep/ProStart Invitation Competition. This is the first year that Texas has participated in this competition.

Twenty-six culinary teams participated in the regional culinary competitions in Dallas, Houston and Austin. The top three teams from each regional competition participated in the state competition.  Three management teams competed at the same time, making for a very exciting day in high school culinary arts!

The WylieHigh School culinary team of Zack Cottey, Brian Duncan, Kellen Ly, Logan Shillington and Austin Valdepena, led by their instructor Steve DeShazo took first prize. Judges were impressed by their tasty cuisine and excellent team work. Teams participating in the culinary competition were required to demonstrate their creative abilities through the preparation of a three-course meal in only 60 minutes. Other areas they were judged on included knife skills and fabricating a chicken in 30 minutes.

Wylie High School’s restaurant management team of Bennet Brown, Jordan Cook, Katie Hoeflich, Lexi Miller and Ashley Morton, also led by Steve DeShazo, placed first in the restaurant management competition. Teams participating in the restaurant management competition demonstrated their knowledge of the restaurant and foodservice industry by developing a restaurant proposal, delivering a verbal presentation and applying critical thinking skills to challenges managers face in day-to-day operations.

Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools provided scholarships to the winners in both the culinary and restaurant management competitions. Wylie High School walked away with a total of $75,000 in scholarships.  Second place teams also walked away with scholarships in the amount of $5,000 on the culinary side and $2,500 on the management side.

Now the two Wylie High School teams will travel to Kansas to compete in the National ProStart Invitational April 30 and will compete for a share of approximately $1.2 million in scholarships is awarded to winning culinary and management teams at the national competition by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company and many leading colleges and universities.  The competition will air on the Food Network and students will get a chance to work with Guy Fieri from the Food Network Program, “Diners, Dives and Drive-ins.”

“It was very exciting to see the outstanding culinary and management talent exhibited by our Texas FS Prep students who competed for the first time,” said Dean McSherry, Preferred Restaurant Services and TRA Education Foundation chairman. “All of the teams should be very proud of their accomplishments and we wish the WylieHigh School teams the best of luck as they represent Texas in the national competition.”

The FSPrep/ProStart Competitions were supported by the following partners: US Foodservice, Auto-Chlor, Preferred Restaurant Services, Tyson, EdwardDon, Texas Beef Council, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools and Claes and Greenoe Marketing Group.

Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation
It is the mission of the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation to serve as the resource arm of the restaurant industry by maintaining educational programs and enhancing the industry’s image to benefit local communities, the state and the foodservice industry. www.restaurantville.com/education

Our 2010 Partners:

For 2011 Partnership Opportunities, contact Robert Hale at rhale@tramail.org.