Culinary has many opportunities to choose from for a career in the future. As an elective for a CTE credit, there are many benefits from taking the class. One of the benefits for being in the class is signing up for C-CAP. C-CAP is a Careers Through Culinary Arts program, which is a non profit organization that helps students with getting scholarships.
Next, the program also does donations and charity work. There are students who do not do the program, but they help out with other events around the school. Students can also participate in catering events around the school grounds. An example of a catering event is for award ceremonies for students.
To emphasize, the organization had many students excel within the culinary aspect. Culinary teacher Angela Stutz explained that she had successful students that have done the program. “A lot of the kids have seen the scholarship money and to have opportunities to work with chefs to get their schooling paid for through C-CAP,” Stutz explained. The program helps with students who want to try to get into culinary school as a career choice.
There are also competitions that students compete for to get the scholarship money. Senior Juan Osorio explained that judges look for specific aspects of the dish and the cooking station in order to give a score for it. “They base it on how clean your station is, how well you can put it together, if you can season everything enough to where it is just right,” Osorio elaborated. Judges also look to see how well the cuts of the dishes are and how precise they are.
When students get to the competition, there is a waiting time to wait for the person who is running the event. “The minute that he leaves, they take you to your kitchen where you will be at and once you get there, you start to do your thing,” Osorio explained. The judges also walk around while the competitors are cooking for their dishes.
There are also many cooking competitions that students compete for. Examples of competitions include a chop challenge, a chili competition and a soup competition. In the past, the class has done the Harvest Moon in Oct.
Moreover, there is a Blue Watermelon competition. Senior Vini Santos has competed in the Blue Watermelon Competition. “The Blue Watermelon competition is where I have to make a school lunch, but I have a bunch of criteria that have to be met,” Santos said. There are requirements such as a calorie limit and the cost of the dish.
The benefits of being in CCAP brings out bright futures for students who are interested in working in the culinary field. With scholarships and competitions, both these help boost entrees to the University and Apprenticeship programs.
