Competition 'Heats Up' During Cook-off At East

Four culinary arts students competed in a recent cook-off at to determine who would go on to compete in Suffolk County Community College's 2011 High School Student Culinary Arts Competition, the winner of which will receive a Culinary Arts scholarship and book stipend (valued up to $1,500) to SCCC's Culinary Arts and Hospitality Center's degree programs.

also held a similar competition.

Brandon Gulburd, Jessica Melendez and Kelsey Macaluso were the three seniors in Sachem East's cooking challenge.  Lee Wade, a junior, while not eligible to win this year, also participated in preparation for next year.

Each participating high school conducts its own "Mystery Basket" competition.  There students are required to prepare and plate an entree consisting of a protein, vegetable and starch, under the supervision of their instructor, who gets to decide on the specifics of the menu.

The students had one hour after school to prepare their meal before the judges determined a winner.

Culinary arts teacher, Arlene Gillespie, decided on bone in chicken breast, three potatoes and four pieces of asparagus.  The young chefs were allowed to add pizzazz to their creative concoctions by using any spices in the cabinet, eggs, butter, chicken broth or condiments such as salad dressing and barbecue sauce of their choosing, and were given access to thermometers.

"Nine times out of ten they will give you chicken on the bone," said Gillespie of the competition at SCCC.

In addition to Gillespie, the other judges included guidance counselor, Donna Jackson, fashion and child development teacher, and former culinary arts instructor, Donna Hiltz and culinary arts teacher, Erin Fisher.

This is the third year that Sachem East and Sachem North are each entering a student in the competition.

The students were judged on the same stringent criteria as they will be at the finals which will be held at SCCC's new Culinary Arts and Hospitality Center located at the East Campus in Riverhead on Tuesday, May 3.

Judges took note of sanitation and cleanliness, culinary techniques, taste and texture, plate presentation and appearance, proper use of ingredients and originality and creativity.

Recently, teachers have noticed more students taking the culinary arts into consideration when determining a future career path.

"I've had quite a few students indicate an interest in culinary arts; two of them happen to be here," said Jackson.  "Since the whole takeoff of cooking channels, I've seen just this wave of interest in the last year or so.  So, I just wanted to show my support."

All the plates were beautifully presented and garnished, appearing worthy of a five-star restaurant.  Unfortunately, not all of the dishes tasted as good as they looked.

Gulburd's chicken wasn't fully cooked.

"I tried to bake it, but I didn't realize how fast time flies, so I had to improvise," he said.  'I could've fried the chicken instead of bake.  This is my first time in a competition.  It felt good to participate, and I learned a valuable lesson," said Gulburd.

Melendez came in first place by two points over Macaluso, and is thrilled to get the chance to make her school proud and potentially earn a scholarship.

While Wade's chicken may not have been cooked all the way through either, his crisp potato chips were a huge hit.

"The sauce is what did it for me," said Gillespie about the winning dish.  "The people who do one extra thing make all the difference in the world."

Melendez decided to give a Latin flair to a regular chicken cutlet by topping it with a zesty sauce, and incorporated chicken into the potatoes and asparagus by adding chicken stock and baking it all together in a pan.

In regard to going head to head with all the best high school chefs on Long Island Melendez said, "I'm excited and nervous.  I'm pretty confident, we'll see."

Gillespie will be doing a lot of coaching with her in the coming weeks to get ready for the finals, where she will be there to support her promising pupil.

Gillespie spent 25 years in the food service industry before coming to teach at the school four years ago.

"I'm really, really happy with how they support this program in this school.  I was very fortunate to get this job in this school.  Mr Scavo, president of the Board of Education, is a culinary teacher in BOCES, so it works out well," said Gillespie who runs her classroom kitchen with the same integrity as she did in a professional setting.

She stressed that cooking fosters teamwork, time management and safety.

"It's like all the different things with cooking:  Math, history of food, writing; they need to understand and comprehend directions.  It really stretches them to be in the real world," Gillespie said.