Congratulations to Culinary Arts teacher Chef James Atzrott and his ProStart team of Emily Chambers (Medina), Selena Wolf (Lockport), Tirsa Converso (Medina and Justine Fitzsimmons (Medina).
The team, from the Orleans/Niagara BOCES’ Orleans Career and Technical Education Center, took first place at the NYSRA (New York State Restaurant Association) ProStart Invitational held at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. They will be representing the state at the National ProStart Invitational May 2-4 in Baltimore, Maryland.
ProStart is a two-year, industry-backed culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students that integrates practical skill sets and allows students to become familiar with restaurants and food service and prepare them for the workforce.
The team’s menu consisted of flat iron steak with tri-colored baby carrots, polenta fries with a chimichurri sauce and strawberry fraiser for dessert. The team competed against seven other teams and were thrilled they came out on top of the competition. “We cried every day from the stress of everything,” says Selena Wolf. “We were very emotional and they were things that were going wrong like the burners being higher than what we practiced with and having to use plastic thermometers as opposed to metal. We finished with seven seconds left. “
The team said they started screaming when they were announced as the winners and then it was Chef Atzrott’s turn to cry. “We were so excited and so glad to have won it for our teacher,” says Selena. “We are so ready to go to Baltimore and hopefully win there too!”