Left to right, Joe Burgener, Jackson Rouse, Alec Rice, Kai Colberg and Brennan Stockbridge are pictured with their Indiana ProStart Competition “Best Entre” winning dish.
Submitted by Brian Mendenhall
Five Central Nine students were the first in the school’s history to win the Indiana ProStart competition for culinary in early March.
The students will head to the National ProStart competition in Baltimore at the end of April.
The four seniors — Jackson Rouse, of Whiteland Community High School, Alec Rice, of Franklin Central High School, Kai Colberg, a home school student, Joe Burgener, of Franklin Community High School — competed as a team at the Indiana ProStart Competition. Brennan Stockbridge of Center Grove High School, their team manager will also go with them to the national competition.
The team competed against 22 others at the competition and earned first place. Each student received a scholarship and will take care of a traveling trophy until next year’s competition. The trophy will also have C9’s school engraved on the front.
The National ProStart Invitational is held each spring and top students from around the country compete in culinary and management events. Culinary teams have 60 minutes to prepare a three-course meal using only two butane burners.
The team was both nervous and excited at the competition and didn’t expect to win, members said. When they were called up to accept “Best Entree” for the seared scallops on a bed of heirloom grits with sauteed asparagus and pickled pepper, they more excited than nervous, Rice said. But when they got called back to the stage for Top Three, they couldn’t believe it.
“When we got on stage we had no idea what was gonna happen,” Colberg said. “They announced third and we’re like ‘Oh, man, we got second at least’ and I was like ‘That’s great,’ but then they announced second and we all looked at each other like ‘No way.’ We were all so excited.”
Chef Brian Mendenhall, who helped coach the team, couldn’t help but shed a few tears of joy when the announcement was made. Seeing the student’s hard work pay off and the excitement from friends and family has been exciting for him, he said.
“We usually try to start around November, seeing what the food looks like in November, which is usually not great. We’re introducing the dishes and then seeing the finished product in March or February, it’s like as an instructor, you see how they’ve gotten better through the process. So it’s rewarding in that way for me, especially.” Mendenhall said.
Mendenhall helps the students with the recipes. Over five months, the students perfected the recipe through collaboration and implementation of new ideas. Along with the seared scallops, the students also made a charred meat salad with blood orange supreme, a herb yogurt sauce, topped with watercress, mint and toasted pistachios. For dessert, they made a carrot cake with cheese mousse.
“By the end, we all contributed something to the final product of the dish and it came out great,” Colberg said.
Practice begins in November for the team and looks a lot like the competition, measuring out the ingredients and cooking the three-course meal on an hour timer after school on Thursdays, Mendenhall said. They got the mistakes out of the way early to ensure they wouldn’t be made during the competition, the students said. Once the anticipatory anxiety went away and it was their turn to compete, their nerves subsided, Rouse said.
While other teams were busy with callouts, the C9 team worked silently, except for a few song breaks, alongside each other.
“We barely even talked to each other really,” Rouse said. “We kind of know what everyone’s doing. We only checked up on each other a few times to make sure nobody needed help with anything.”
For nationals, they’ll be keeping the same dish and implementing judges feedback to stay competitive and elevate the dishes a bit more, Mendenhall said. Making small changes, like adding an ingredient for texture or aesthetic can have a huge difference to a dish, he said.
“Trying to incorporate different layers of flavor and texture. If you want to be competitive in this comprehensive competition, those are things that you have to to do,” Mendenhall said.
The bus ride home was full of excitement and ideas of how they could open a business and continue cooking together, they said.
The students are raising money to send the students to assist with travel expenses. So far, they have raised $1,690. The last day to donate is March 25. To donate, visit raise.snapp.app/donors/C9-career-center-culinary-nationals-2024
