Winter Springs High School has a wonderful culinary program where attendees can cook various foods and learn more about the kitchen. In addition, juniors and seniors have the opportunity to go deeper into the cooking world and attend competitions to see who is the best chef. Back in 2021, the culinary team placed sixth in the state of Florida. The team has practiced multiple times a week. During practice, they make three dishes at once; They are required to make an appetizer, entrée, and a dessert, all in under one hour. They will encounter various challenges when facing these judges who provide numerous different challenges. These trials include keeping up with cleanliness, making sure they are keeping everything sanitized, and not cross-contaminating any food.
Michael Evans, a member of the culinary team said, “The judges go off of creativity, hardness, the taste of the dish, and communication.” When asked about the point system and how the judges score contestants, Evans also said, “We get to pick the appetizers, main courses, and dessert.” He added that this year they are making “bruschetta as an appetizer, crab ravioli as the entrée and they are still contemplating which dessert to pick.” With weekly practice, they have the opportunity to perfect the dish and experiment with different tactics on how to make all three courses in under one hour.
In another interview, this time with head chef Adam Eflin, he said, “It’s a lot of professionalism. They are very strict and hard on the contestants. Other than the judges grading the food they also look at their uniform, how they are communicating, sanitation, etc.” With these harsh environments, it’s important to have those twice-a-week practices so the team can learn from their mistakes and understand how to make three courses all under one hour. But, even with all of these practices of making the food and working together, it is still stressful when facing judges and other teams who are just as skilled.
Whether or not the culinary team makes it in the first place, Eflin said, “For them just to finish in under an hour, not get disqualified, and put out exactly what we practiced, I am proud of them.”
