A state championship that comes with a side of bacon

At St. Paul’s RiverCentre, nearly 100 high schoolers in chef coats and caps peeled sweet potatoes, seared sirloin and shaved chocolate with flying fingers and intense focus.

As the clock ticked down, one student sliced into a steak as those watching held their breath: Would the center be just the right shade of ruby-rare? If it was overcooked or underdone, there was no time for a do-over. And the students had just 60 minutes to create their three-course gourmet meals.

Fans held homemade signs encouraging their favorite five-student team to “Bring the heat,” which gave the competition the flavor of a state sports tournament — except with bacon wafting in the air.

For Minnesota high schoolers studying culinary arts and restaurant management, the ProStart Invitational, which took place last week, is their version of going to state. The annual culinary contest pairs the intensity of a TV cooking show with the logistical constraints of camping. Teams have only two butane burners for heat, and no running water or electricity. So all the egg whites and cream are hand-whipped. And the ovens are collapsible Colemans.

In the competition’s final seconds, students spooned sauces, folded crepes, and hurriedly wiped plates, some with nervous, shaking hands. When time was up, their artfully plated creations — Puerto Rican mofongo, frenched lamb chops, pistachio mousseline — were whisked off to the tasting judges.

While the stereotypical teen food service worker flips burgers at McDonald’s, those in ProStart, a two-year program for high-school students run by the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation, are on a more ambitious track. Before they’ve graduated, some have jobs working the line in scratch kitchens. One group of ProStart students was recently entrusted by its mentor, a General Mills chef, to help cater his wedding.

ProStart’s growing program provides culinary skills and career connections for young Minnesotans. But it also supports the state’s broader economic goals by helping ease the foodservice labor shortage and strengthen its dining scene, said Angie Whitcomb, President & CEO of Hospitality Minnesota, which hosts the competition. “This is not your mama’s home ec,” she said.

In the past decade, Minnesota’s ProStart program has roughly doubled in size. Today, about 100 schools offer culinary classes that use its curriculum. (Those selected for competition teams prepare outside of class, like an extracurricular.)

ProStart offers one track for culinary arts and another for restaurant management. (At the Invitational, management teams compete by presenting proposals for a restaurant concept they’ve created, including a menu, interior design and a business plan.)

Compared to a basic school cooking class, ProStart’s culinary program teaches more advanced kitchen skills, educates students about the range of culinary careers and connects them to mentors. ProStart students can earn food safety certification and a certificate of achievement that gives them a leg up for jobs and further schooling.

Mary Levinski teaches at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School and has been a ProStart instructor since the program came to Minnesota, nearly two decades ago. She has led several teams to nationals. A mere 30 days into the school year, her students cater a school function with 300 attendees.

While the rise of TV cooking competitions has spurred interest in culinary careers, Levinski said. ProStart gives students a reality check. “Kids take culinary classes thinking they’re going to be a Food Network star, and then they get the real taste of it when we do catering.”

Levinski has seen many students go into culinary careers. Her team’s chef mentor, James Leeder-Botnan, for example, took Levinski’s class a decade ago. (He had to bow out of competing in the ProStart invitational when he sliced off a chunk of his thumb and had to get stitches.) After culinary school and cooking at several restaurants, Leeder-Botnan became the executive chef/general manager at Maple Plain’s McGarry’s Pub, where he’s also a partner. He has hired several ProStart students to work at the restaurant. “They use me as a stepping-stone and then kind of branch off from there,” he said.

For last year’s winning team, from Pillager, a community of 500 near Brainerd, countless 6 a.m. practice sessions paid off. They were the school’s first team to win a state championship — in any activity, said their chef mentor Tom Kavanaugh, of Kavanaugh’s Sylvan Lake Resort. He noted how the program teaches students problem-solving, creative thinking, organization, communication and teamwork. Much like sports teams or drama clubs, he said, the camaraderie creates tight bonds.

Those bonds led several members of last year’s team, who have since graduated, to cheer on their alma mater. Delaney Deuel traveled furthest; she’s studying in Rhode Island at the top-notch Johnson & Wales University’s college of culinary arts. Her time in ProStart, she said, gave her a strong foundation of skills and opened up opportunities. At some point, she’d love to help judge the event, to give back to the program, she sad. “It really gave me a taste of what it’s like in the culinary industry.”

Culinary jobs, noted Whitcomb, of Hospitality Minnesota, have relatively low barriers to entry and can develop into lifelong careers. “The upward trajectory is kind of endless,” she said. She says ProStart serves as a valuable pipeline to jobs in the hospitality industry, which is experiencing a worker shortage.

Short-staffed restaurateurs have been cutting hours and even large resort owners are pitching in to strip beds, Whitcomb said. Now that the Legislature has allocated $25 million in new funding for Explore Minnesota, she wants to make sure the state is prepared to host an influx of tourists.

Students at the invitational give her confidence. “If this is the future of the industry, I feel pretty good,” she said.

At the end of the culinary competition, Shakopee High School took top honors and will head to nationals in Baltimore in April.

The only losers were those of us in the audience, who practically drooled over the food, but never got a bite.