Park's Culinary Team Competes at State-Level This Weekend

The 2013 Michigan ProStart Competition is Sunday to Monday at the Lexington Hotel in Lansing.

Plymouth-Canton Educational Park's culinary team, the Gourmet Club, won first at the state invitational and second place at the national competition last year.

Competing this year will be:

Culinary Team

Taylor Hoener - Canton High School senior
Emily Koelzer - Plymouth High School senior
Chelsea Polydoras  - Canton High School senior
Paul DiNicola - Salem High School junior
Alternate:  Ashley Saunders - Plymouth High School senior

Management Team

Marisa Beeker - Canton High School senior
Alisyn Sharbnow - Salem High School senior
Julia Triebwasser - Canton High School junior
Alternate: Khadeja Albarkat - Plymouth High School senior

Sanitation Team

Alex Paetzols - Plymouth High School sophomore
Joey Cucuru - Plymouth High School junior
Emily Koelzer - Plymouth High School senior
Taylor Hoener - Canton High School senior

Nutrition Team

Sarah Messer - Plymouth High School senior
Zack Shouinard - Plymouth High School sophomore

The culinary competition includes a 15-minute knife skill demonstration, including techniques like butchery cuts. Then the competitors are given 20 minutes to prepare before the hour-session for cooking, which is followed by 15 minutes for tear down and sanitation.

Tessa Warner, former culinary team member and current culinary arts student at Schoolcraft Community College, said sometimes people cut themselves. But competitors will bandage their wounds and continue, using an alternate team member only as a last resort, she said.

The pressure is intense and competitors have to be ready for anything, which is why Diana Woodward, culinary teacher and coach, would sneak in and take the students' equipment during training.

"One time, I caught her and it was a tug of war," Warner said.

The team has been competing for 11 years, Woodward said, and has placed in top positions in the state for 10 of those years.

The nutrition team develops a complete menu with three starters, six entrees and three desserts, Shouinard said. The menu must have gluten-free options and certain items must not exceed set calorie and fat limits, he said.

Another component to the competition is restaurant design. Woodward said the management team designs a restaurant from the ground and presents blueprints and the concept before judges who pose as investors.

Read more about Tessa Warner's experience in the Park's culinary classes and competing on the culinary team.