Northeast High School Culinary Team Brings The Heat To Annual Cooking Competition

There were tryouts, timed drills and practices that grew in frequency and intensity as the season progressed. For the Northeast High School culinary team, preparing for the annual Maryland ProStart Student Invitational (MPSI) culinary competition was no different from gearing up for a major sporting event.

On Saturday, March 1, the five-person team battled it out with nearly a dozen schools from across the state at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor. Teams were required to create a three-course meal using only two butane burners and without access to electricity or running water. They were limited to a 10-by-10-foot space and required to prepare their entire menu in under an hour. Contestants were judged on taste, skill, teamwork, safety and sanitation.

“It’s a little bit like an episode of ‘Chopped,’” explained Lenore Martin, Northeast High family and consumer science teacher and team moderator. She is also the school’s ProStart teacher, helping to train students for careers in hospitality management and food service.

As they would on the popular Food Network television show, MPSI competitors vie for big prizes, including college scholarships. State winners also advance to the national level. This year marked Martin’s fifth competition, and two of her former teams went on to compete in the nationwide finals.

Michal Santos, a culinary arts student who works at the Gibson Island Club, served as the team’s mentor. With guidance from Martin and Santos, students planned, tested and timed their competition menu over the course of several months.

For 17-year-old team captain and returning team member Reed Barrington, the two greatest competition challenges were space and time.

“We had 60 minutes to make two servings of a three-course meal. Our space is very constrained — we’re bumping into each other, timing everything,” Barrington recounted.

Despite the close quarters, Barrington said that building a close camaraderie with his teammates was one of the highlights of the season. The Northeast team also included students Mackenzie Burrows, Maggie Gosewich, Kyle Mosco and Kassidee Wright.

Wright served as the team’s director. As the only non-cooking team member, Wright’s primary responsibility was to ensure the student chefs timed their dishes appropriately to meet the contest limits. Though the Northeast team members had been practicing their meal preparation for weeks, the first time they completed the entire menu in the allotted time was during the competition.

The Northeast team prepared a “delightful pasta bowl” for their first course, Chesapeake chicken with sautéed vegetables for their second course and a three-layer chocolate cake for dessert. While their team did not place in this year’s competition, Barrington said he took the judges’ feedback to heart and gained valuable industry experience. The aspiring chef hopes to attend culinary school and open his own restaurant someday.