Central Nine Career Center culinary instructor Brian Mendenall, left, with his culinary team after they placed third among 23 teams at the Indiana ProStart Invitational March 6 in Muncie.
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A team of Central Nine Career Center culinary students placed third in a state competition, and another student qualified for nationals in a solo contest.
Kali Lantrip, a senior, earned a spot in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, or FCCLA National Leadership Conference Baking and Pastry competition in Denver the first week of July. Lantrip, a Greenwood resident who is homeschooled when she’s not at Central Nine, has come a long way from when she was following videos to figure out how to make different foods, she said.
“Coming here harnessed my ability in the kitchen. It was a different environment and taught me techniques and I have more interest than I did before,” Lantrip said. “It’s understanding why or how a recipe works, to be able to look at a recipe and not need to follow instructions, but learn about the flavor and what has been passed down for a long time. You can find leniency and create your own path.”
To qualify for the national competition, Lantrip finished first among 32 students in the baking and pastry individual contest during the Indiana ProStart Invitational March 6 in Muncie. To meet the contest’s requirements, she had to decorate a cake and produce oatmeal raisin cookies, corn muffins and cream puffs within two hours and 45 minutes. Lantrip was able to finish her creations with time to spare, decorating the cake with reddish-orange and yellow icing and the message “Happy 10th Birthday Myra!” Now, she has the chance to wow judges on a national stage.
“It’s a huge honor. I didn’t think I would make it this far,” Lantrip said. “It’s very reassuring to know all the hard work and hours in practice and time dedicated to learning what I can about the career paid off and it does mean something. My passion and ambition pays off and will set me apart and it’s not just a waste of time.”
Lantrip, who already works under a pastry chef at Our Table Bistro in Bargersville, will either go to Ivy Tech Community College for a degree in baking and pastry or go straight into the industry, she said.
In the team event, Franklin Community High School senior T.K. Kappes and Center Grove High School seniors Remy Landis, Mackenzie DeVries and Jimmy Mueller earned a third place finish among 23 teams, creating a three-course meal, including an appetizer, entrée and desert. They couldn’t use any ovens or fryers, instead relying on butane burners to create the meal within an hour. Dishes included shaved asparagus salad, pan-seared trout and sweet corn panna cotta, said Brian Mendenhall, culinary instructor.
Mueller put together the entrée, which combined the trout with pea puree, sautéed potatoes, mushroom and red bell pepper while Landis made the buerre blanc sauce to go with it. Everyone had to have an intense focus to finish their tasks before the hour elapsed, Mueller said.
Mueller also was team manager for the Center Grove football team, and the culinary team’s performance filled him with a level of pride similar to that of winning a state championship, he said.
“It was really stressful. We practiced every Thursday night from before winter break to two weeks ago,” Mueller said. “For football, it was a big accomplishment. For culinary, we didn’t win the state but I feel like, in my book, it’s about the same.”
Both Landis and Mueller plan to pursue a culinary degree at Ivy Tech before entering the restaurant industry, they said.
For Landis, the decision to enter the culinary field was the joining of two passions.
“I’ve always loved food. It started when I first learned to make ramen. It was so simple, but I did it,” Landis said. “I like working with my hands. To combine my love of doing things with my hands and my love of food just made sense. I came out and found out I could make a career of it.”
The team’s camaraderie helped propel it to the third-place finish, he said.
“We performed together as a team,” Landis said. “It went from a thing we did every Thursday to a passion. As time went on, the four of us got to know each other better, talk more and communicate extremely well.”
DeVries, who made the shaved asparagus salad with arugula and honey mustard sauce, first wanted to make food because her father made a delicious meal for her. Now, she has plans to one day open a restaurant either in the western United States or in Germany, she said.
“I’m bummed we didn’t get first, but I’m proud of us. We’re the first team of (Mendenhall’s) to place on a podium and the fact we got there in the first place is riveting,” DeVries said. “It’s just incredible, I never thought we’d be able to do it.”
