Five OH culinary students, led by culinary teacher Thomas Dwyer, showed off their talents at the Prostart competition on March 2, 2024, and won third place at the event.
“[The] competition helps high school students get their foot in the door when it comes to scholarships to culinary schools,” explained OH senior Phoenix Goldstein. “One section has teams cooking an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert; the other is teams pitching a restaurant concept in the fictional city of ProStartville to show their knowledge of what it takes to get a restaurant running.”
Prostart is a culinary and restaurant management competition that focuses on teamwork to assemble a restaurant concept, similar to a business expo, and sell it to judges who act as potential investors. The competition, held at Sysco Chicago, is run by the Illinois Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.
“My motivation for participating in the program is straightforward: Prostart is an opportunity for student[s] to interact with industry professionals. The program also offers [them] an opportunity to network with accredited colleges, and earn scholarships,” said Dwyer.
As the competition was closer to a portfolio judgment than an in-the-moment assessment, each part of the restaurant’s plan needed review, no matter how tiny the detail. From beginning to end, students had to dedicate themselves not only to the proper research of their assigned category but also to make sure each step of their category could work properly.
Each judge was an industry expert, asking students critical-thinking questions for potential business issues as well as clarification questions on different topics depending on their specialty.
“The first step is building the team [and] establishing the time commitment for the project. Once we have the group established, there is a long list of rules and expectations. The students [[…]] break the project into parts for each person in the group,” explained Dwyer.
All parts come with a huge responsibility, but in addition to that, they must make sure their plan will work for everyone else.
“Each student is responsible for the research for the category and must present it to the group. Once the information is collected, students build a business plan and present it to judges,” Dwyer added.
Students shared that the plan took much time, even after school ended. For example, OH junior Aiden Emanuel and senior Goldstein spent at least three to six hours per week after school and occasionally met during the weekends to turn their ideas into a fully-fledged concept.
“We met once or twice every week for the past month or two, and then every day the week of March 2nd in order to rehearse. While we started coming up with ideas in January, most of the work was done throughout February,” said Goldstein.
All the students who attended the competition were seniors Phoenix Goldstein, Vincent LaMantia, Alexa Torres, and Kristen Gubricky, with junior Aiden Emanuel supporting them and the concept behind the scenes.
“I decided to compete in Prostart this year [since] I [want] to go into the restaurant management industry, and [I] was excited to meet people who showed interest in going into the culinary world,” said junior Aiden Emanuel.
Overall, each interviewed student expressed their excitement about not only getting third place but being able to participate in the event.
“I really enjoyed [my] time there, and it was a fun experience being able to see other teams present their concepts or food,” said Goldstein.
Hello, I'm Gianna! This is my second year on staff, now as a senior in high school. I'm the head of the News and Artwork sections. I'm currently in Color Guard, B.I.O.N.I.C, NAHS, NEHS, Quill & Scroll Honors Society, and Senior Class Council!
My name is Aster Lasher & I am a Senior at OHS
I use Any/All pronouns
I'm interested in horror, gaming, and various animated series, namely One Piece. I'm in D&D club and participate outside of school too!
You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org with my name at the subject line!! Please leave us comments on our articles!!!
This is so great! Thank you for covering something that not a lot of people would know about! Love it