Student Chefs Compete For A Bright Future

For those of you young minds looking to make a name for yourself in hallowed kitchens, donning chef coats for a living is your dream and culinary scholarships the path to attain those dreams. That is what some New York City high school students were battling it out for a few days ago in an attempt to become master chefs in fancy restaurants, earning name and fame in their fields.

The Event

* It was a two-hour cooking competition among 19 young students dressed in double-breasted chef coats, caps, and aprons to see who could serve the most appetizing dishes.

* The task involved preparing two dishes - a classic French chicken dish and desert crepes with pastry cream and chocolate sauce.

* The winners will get scholarships of up to $100,000 from Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP); there was intense competition among the participants.

* The results will be declared on April 29, 2011, at the Pierre Hotel.

The teen chefs gave it their best shot - their single-minded focus on the task at hand using their own varying experience as customers and interns of classy hotels. The judges moved from one competitor to another to observe their cooking style and finally taste their preparations. One of the judges Sani Hebaj, in an impeccable white, double-breasted chef coat, was quite impressed with what he tasted. With his enviable experience as an Executive Chef at the New York Marriott Downtown, it really says something about the young hands at work.

The Scholarships

The aspiring young chefs will have a chance to win scholarships, based on:

* High school transcripts

* Essays

* The culinary competitio

Of course, if the students have similar academic performances and leveled each other in GPAs, then their preparations while wearing the traditional white chef coats would act as the tie-breaker.

Networking and Learning

The race for these scholarships is better understood when you see the possibilities for graduate students. With the enhanced network and privileged group of people you get to interact with, you learn the techniques and tricks to counter all kinds of emergency situations and to please the taste buds of the most eccentric people from all over the world.

The culinary art that is passed from one generation to another from these gifted chefs is not something that can be gained even through years of experience. Perhaps, the best prize of all is the creative minds you get to rub shoulders with. The lessons learnt by these talented men and women in classy white chef coats cannot be easily substituted.

The Art of Cooking

It is not all glamorous - it involves a lot of hard work and patience as you chop large quantities of vegetables. Chopping vegetables finely is as much an art as creating beautiful designs with the chocolate sauce, as some participating young students will tell you. It takes eager young minds driven by the passion to please and excel at their talent as the 19 students partaking in the competition.