C-CAP

back in October of 2010 Mrs. Piper entered Luis (a senior in my Culinary class at Valley Vista) and myself to compete , Luis for a Scholarship. and since i was a Junior  i could not compete for the scholarship i was able to compete for a spot ion the top 10 Juniors. the competition was in February 2011

what is  C-CAP  you ask.... C-CAP stands for Careers though Culinary Arts Program. it's a program that started many years ago by a man named Richard Grausman. the program works with high schools who have culinary arts programs , they help the students earn scholarships , ranging from $50Thou to $130thou  per student.

So you want to know what i had to do?.... as a Junior i get to participate in the preliminaries competition.All Seniors compete in preliminaries as well. This determines the top 10 Juniors (who get to go to the Banquet, and also serve all the Seniors at the final competition),  and the 35+ seniors that will compete for the scholarship

What did i have to cook... a French Omelet  (to Perfection) what is perfection you ask? nice golden yellow color, seasoned perfect, tri folded, not runny but moist when they cut into it,  and a salad  that consisted of Bell peppers, jicama cucumber and a vinaigrette dressing. easy you say , but it's not , you have to slice cucumber circles and place them in a ring mold and then season your dressing perfect, dice your veggies all the same size and then place all your diced veggies in the ring mold , remove the cucumber bowl that you have created and hope it doesn't break apart. 

So after months of practicing and my parents tired of tasting the salad , the day finally came to Cook for the judge's....




 here is my finish product.   

Omelet

i had not cooked the Omelet for my parents till the day before the preliminaries, ...hmmm...it was funny , my father wanted to barf, a french omelet is a little under cook ,  the egg continues cooking as you take it off the saute and fold it, and then as it goes to the customer it continues cooking so that when the customer received his Omelet , it is finally cooked , moist and well done as a French omelet should be

Salad

I was very confident by this point , when i walked out to place my plate under my number , i noticed there were a few salads that had were falling apart, i even turned to my mother and Mrs. Piper and gave them a thumbs up.

NOT GOOD, slices were to thick and not tight

this was Luis' Salad ...he was mad ...he practiced this day after day ...and the day  it counts ...The one thing you don't want to happen.... happens

This was #13 a senior , perfect

another disappointment ...what happened...did he not practice???


 i was in the first heat of the preliminaries, there were 3 more to go. we did not get the results after a week of the competition....

waiting for the call to go prep our area

Luis and I registering, the lady is explaining to us what time we start prepping our area



My Number 26



My prep Area

Luis preparing his area



all the competitors ...



Judges...they were all Chefs , one guy was a C-CAP alumni,



parents or Teachers were not allowed to go to the Kitchen Area during Competition



Mrs/ Piper ...getting all her Goodies for her Culinary Class

Omelets are out and getting judged for color

Judges cutting in to the omelets to taste  for seasoning and check to make sure it was cooked perfect





After the competition one of the judges , signed her cookbook  for all the students and teachers...Mr's piper getting her book. 

a little something about Mrs. Piper...she has a walk in Pantry, half of the pantry is a collection of cook books from top to bottom and wall to wall...next time i go to her house i will take a picture and post it for all to see, she literally has a cookbook library.

Luis getting his Cookbook

Results.... Gotta love Mrs. Piper...she called my mom and told her i made TOP  10...and that we were going to the Banquet, at the Banquet , they award 3 of the top 10 Juniors a trip to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY) Johnson and Whales, or to The Arts Institute of Phoenix. Mrs. Piper told me she knew i had made top 10, she did not doubt my cooking and my ability to impress the judges.

Heading home!!!