Two teams take gold in ProStart competition

The spring ProStart competition, originally scheduled for Friday, Feb. 12, was canceled and rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17. It was supposed to be rescheduled for Friday, Feb. 19, but the date was moved up. The competition was held at the Belton High School in the ProStart kitchen, room 212. This was an all-day event.

The students that participated in the competition were all required to prepare a menu consisting of the same items. The appetizer included Cobb salad and pesto stuffed chicken breast with confetti pasta. Then for dessert they made lemon tart with Chantilly cream. They weren’t only judged by the food they prepared though. The judges critiqued them on many levels.

The seven teams were judged based on three main groups: safety and appearance, food production, and food presentation. The three groups of evaluation broke down into more specific groups. Safety and appearance included such things as clothing and appearance, safety, sanitation and preparation temperature. Under food production the students were judged upon their use of the equipment and tools, their techniques, their time management, their skill for following recipe directions and their teamwork. For food production the judges looked at the appearance of the food, the serving temperature and the garnish. At the end of the competition the points were added up. In order to qualify for the state competition, the teams had to get a minimum of 90 points total.

Belton finished the competition with two people getting gold, four silver, and one bronze. The two teams that placed gold will be going to the state competition. These two teams included juniors Maisha Cody and Katie Holt as one team and seniors Erin Winslow, George Baylon and Bear Hall as the other team. The state competition will be held March 20-23, in Columbia, Missouri.

ProStart teacher Heather Bratcher said that the competition was good, but that they could always do a little better.

“There’s always room for improvement before state,” Bratcher said.

Holt said she that she can’t wait for the state competition. She said she’s very excited for it, and very nervous. She also said that she thinks her team is prepared for state.

“I feel that we are ready,” Holt said.