Cooking Up a Storm
On March 6, 2008, four Battle Mountain High School (BMHS) student chefs, in the blind tasting, won the ProStart State Culinary Championships for the fifth time in six years. In late April 2008, they headed to the National ProStart Student Invitational in San Diego in search of the team’s second national championship win.
Instead, they came away with a highly respectable fourth place, with each young chef winning a total of approximately $17,500 in scholarship money in both the state and national competitions. In addition to winning twice, Battle Mountain has placed second twice and seventh once at the national event.
Taking it higher than simply eating what they cook and receiving grades, the BMHS ProStart Team demonstrates winning ways with food. Student chefs practice until they make superior savory sauces and deftly handle kitchen knives within time limits. Whether it’s boning a duck, piping a purée, or tempering eggs and cream, this is skilled and creative work.
For ProStart competitions, students must produce and plate a three-course meal on two butane burners at two 8 x 8 foot tables in 60 minutes. Sanitation requirements are stringent. Teams are allowed 15 minutes to set up. Aside from the burners and tables, they must bring everything else, including coolers, sanitation buckets, knife buckets, dirty dish bins and equipment bins.
Before competing in public, the four teammates practice and then practice some more in their school’s ProStart classroom.
The consistent achievements of the BMHS culinary team are rewarded with scholarships that make mentor Chef Paul Ferzacca and the other coaches very proud. “I do this because it changes their lives,” Ferzacca says.
How It All Started
ProStart originated when Mary Minot, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association Education Program, founded Colorado ProStart nine years ago. The career-building program is now operating nationwide. The Colorado Restaurant Association and the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association form the umbrella under which aspiring young chefs learn to craft food. This year saw 25 state entries in Denver, while teams from 37 states competed at Nationals.
Mentor Chefs
Under Chef Ferzacca’s guidance, teams choose recipes, learn how to prepare, cook, and serve an appetizer, entrée, and dessert to be judged by a panel of culinary experts.
Ferzacca and wife Lourdes own Vail Village’s La Tour and Avon’s Zacca Za restaurants. “What we do is never ending,” Ferzacca says. Although his schedule is already full, mentoring high school chefs for the past six years has suited him just fine. Keeping people happy with food comes naturally to Ferzacca, who has a weekly pizza night for his Zacca Za employees.
There is help from assistant coaches David Sanchez (chef at the Brightwater Club and formerly at Arrowhead’s Allie’s Cabin); Tom Walker (a chef and father of 2007 ProStart scholarship winner, Ryan Walker); and BMHS Consumer and Family Studies teacher Sharon Wible, who is in her fifth year with the program. “The more eyes you have, the better,” Ferzacca believes. Mentors donate their time and expertise.
The 2008 “team” — seniors Pearl Burkham, Bart Clark, Julia Schorr, and Rudy Sosa, plus alternate Taylor Hansen — practiced making the three dishes over 20 times prior to this year’s state competition.
“Beginning after Christmas, they practiced three times a week and then six times weekly prior to the state competition,” says Sanchez. As teacher-chefs, “Paul and I want to elevate the culinary culture of the valley,” he explains. In the past, we have committed our time to teach at Colorado Mountain College and Johnson & Wales University.”
Professional mentoring has helped BMHS to shine. “I think we are the first to have chefs come in and scrutinize the team’s efforts,” says Sanchez.
The students learn three important rules from Chef Ferzacca: Clean up after every task, taste everything, and season everything.
Last year’s national invitational winners — BMHS students Colby Lefebvre, Cam Lewis, Ian King, and Ryan Walker — each received scholarship money to a variety of culinary schools. They chose Johnson & Wales University. Another ProStart alumna graduates from J&W this year with a four-year culinary arts and entrepreneurship degree.
Ferzacca’s own son, 15-year-old JonPaul, has expressed interest in the ProStart program.
Process and Preparation
This year, a Knife Cutting Skills segment was added to the competition at Nationals. Experts judged four of the six knife cuts used in the prepared dishes. Student chefs chiffonade bok choy, brunoise carrots, julienne asparagus on the diagonal, and dice Fresno chilies for points.
At one afternoon practice, Chef Ferzacca demonstrated carrot cuts, asking students the reason the 1/2-inch cubes must all be the same size. “To cook evenly,” says Pearl immediately.
In a professional kitchen, consistency is key. “Quality is the first rule of thumb,” says the chef. “Speed and proficiency come after learning to do it as well as you can.”
Ferzacca learned early in Chicago when he managed Lou Malnati’s deep-dish pizza restaurant. He studied two years at culinary school in Illinois and later came to Vail as chef for the Two Elk Lodge mountain restaurant. Vail founder Pete Seibert invited him to take over the kitchen at a new private mountain establishment, the Game Creek Club. But first, the two went to Europe so Seibert could show the young chef exactly what he had in mind.
The Importance of Communication
In a competition where one point out of 100 may mean the difference between winning and losing, communicating is major. “The idea is not to give points away,” explains Sanchez.
A large part of the students’ experience is about forming relationships, which they take to competition. Discussing what they like about ProStart, one hears such comments as, “We like to spend time together” and “We learn patience from each other.” Summing up, Julia Shorr says, “We need each other.”
Individual Style
Pearl Burkham likes to use a few popcorn kernels to know when the oil has heated to just the right temperature. Julia practices at home making chocolate swirls for her Bavaroise dessert. Bart Clark puts on three pairs of thin rubber gloves, removing a pair as he shifts to the next food prep. He is the “tournant” or starter, who has his own tasks to complete but who also helps others. At one point during a practice, Pearl asks Bart for help stiffening the egg whites while Rudy Sosa cuts confidently into the duck. Says Chef, “Other teams don’t share tasks between plates.”
Preparing for the Nationals
Ready to practice, everyone is standing in position at the L-shaped table in mid-March. Gloves are on. Knives are in hand. Towels are folded. The bucket of sanitation solution
and cloths are at the ready. Someone remembers aloud that water boils faster in San Diego than at high altitude.
Start the timer. One peels a carrot, one cuts lotus root rounds, one preps the entrée, and another begins dessert. Chef Sanchez is watchful, asking questions, guiding.
The communication soon becomes rhythmic and easy. “Behind you,” says Julia on the way to get the passion fruit sorbet from the cooler. A trio of responses, “Thank you.” Pearl calls out the time left: “46 till plate.” Chorus in reply, “46, thank you.”
As in any competition, it is not all smooth sailing. Things happen. At State, the sorbet machine used for the dessert came apart and had to be reassembled. But theirs was the team with the crowd around it.
When asked what is the hardest part of competing? Team members agree: Waiting for the results. There is no question nor hesitancy about their competency with the food. X
Vail Valley-based Rosalie Hill Isom owns the writing and editing business, Word for Word.
