Saratoga cooks up a win

Saratoga Middle High School (SMHS) students Doug Campbell, Hope Cooper, and Skyler Wood competed recently at the State ProStart competition held in Cheyenne and brought home the championship trophy in Cake Baking and the runner-up trophy in the Culinary Competition.

The winners were announced during the Governor’s Winter Gala event at Little America on February 26^th in front of an audience of 500 people.

ProStart is an industry-backed culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students, designed to impart the necessary skills and desire for students to continue in the foodservice industry after graduation. Students compete at the high school level in the hopes of winning a state championship in Culinary or Management in order to be eligible to compete at the National tournament.

There is a 60-minute time limit in both the cake and culinary competition, and the judging for both contests are centered around taste, skill, teamwork, safety, level of difficulty, and sanitation. The culinary portion highlights each team’s creative abilities through the preparations of a 3-course meal, using only two butane burners and without access to running water or electricity. The cake competition allows teams to pre-bake the cake, but assembly and decorating occur during the contest.

“It is not easy to do what they did. You get pretty rustic and do what the old-timers did,” said Cheryl Munroe, SMHS teacher in charge of ProStart

Saratoga began the day early Monday morning with the cake competition. The team effort showed throughout the day, with teammates complementing one another’s abilities and highlighting strengths of individuals. Their winning cake included banana cake layers, creamy nougat filling and pecan pieces with a center of candied pineapple tidbits and Maraschino cherries. Doug Campbell said new team-member Hope Cooper was really the driving force behind the cake competition.

“She was pretty much in charge of that while Skyler and I were at State Wrestling,” said Campbell.

Munroe said, while teams could buy things for their cake, SMHS decided to “make everything from scratch. I showed Hope how to make that rose and she nailed it.”

All of the judges appeared extremely impressed that Saratoga only had three members on their team. The maximum number is five (including one non-cooking expediter/manager), but Saratoga competed with three. In fact, Hope Cooper only joined the team a week and a half before the competition, which was timely being that the fourth member of the original team was unable to compete. A judge asked Skyler if they could handle the meal with the smaller team and he replied, “Absolutely.”

Cheryl was quick to point out the importance of teamwork in a real-world environment.

“This is just like any team sport, where roles and responsibilities and teamwork are so important,” said Munroe.

The culinary competition was the last event of the day for Saratoga. With a large contingent of Carbon County residents in the audience, the Saratoga team began to cook their meal consisting of a spinach and spring salad, butter-basted bison tenderloin, and a lemon snap tuile dessert. In the heat of the competition, Saratoga overcame various issues like lost implements and misplaced coolers. Every time they were faced with a roadblock they would have a quick discussion, find a solution, and move on. The team managed to plate at the last second--the timekeeper said “TIME” and they simultaneously yelled “DONE” while raising their hands.

Saratoga eventually lost the culinary competition to Laramie Team 1 by a single point. The parents of a student on the winning team related how their son had been “cooking almost every day for the last 8 months” in preparation for the competition. With only 6 weeks to get ready, Coach Munroe said, “I am really proud of these kids. They did an amazing job with little preparation.”

The team credited Munroe’s experience along with incredible teamwork and cooperation as keys to their success. Their ability to trust one another and lean on Cheryl’s expertise made for a winning formula. You can bet Munroe will be back again next year with another formidable crew, attempting to cook their way to another state championship.