Student chefs prepare for national test

Much like the contestants on Food Network shows such as "Chopped" or "Iron Chef," the student chefs at the East Career and Technical Academy must prove themselves by preparing a mystery ingredient.

Once it was tofu, or soy bean curd.

"I wasn't even sure how to cook it," Queen Canimo said.

But her pan-fried tofu seasoned with salt and pepper was good enough to earn her a place on her high school's competitive cooking team.

Christopher Lindsay, the executive chef and culinary educator at ECTA, apparently picked his team well.

Against teams from 20 other high schools, they took first place in both the 60-minute cooking and culinary management team competitions of the Nevada ProStart Invitational. That's the first time any school has done that in the nine years of the invitational.

Eight students from East Career and Technical Academy will represent Nevada at the national ProStart competition in Overland Park, Kan., at the end of April.

If they take first place in their respective categories, each student could come home with a $10,000 college scholarship.

The competition is sponsored by the National Restaurant Association.

Canimo, the 19-year-old daughter of a cook at a Filipino restaurant called Pinoy Pinay, also took a gold medal in a SkillsUSA competition by slicing a red onion within a sixteenth of an inch, filleting a fish and preparing a soup from scratch.

Canimo carries a digital archive of her award-winning dishes on her smart phone, but blushes when talking about her success.

"They always call me perfect, but I don't know why," she said. "I hardly cook at home."

In the cooking competition of the Nevada ProStart Invitational, Canimo and teammates Krystel Malendres, Jonathan Rodriguez and Matthew Youngblood were limited to using two butane burners to cook a three-course meal.

They prepared a winning menu of scallops with micro greens and a celery and parsnip puree, seared lamb loin with sides of ratatouille and ravioli, and triple-layered raspberry mousse.

In the culinary management competition, students Josiah Spenner, Samantha Adolf, Anthony Scott and Juleus Ramiro pitched the winning concept for a new restaurant called Smokey B's, a barbecue joint where diners feast on ribs and grilled artichokes and listen to live jazz and blues.

The menu will be affordable because "we want to give people on a budget a five-star experience," Spenner said.

The environmentally and socially conscious restaurant will recycle their cooking oil into biodiesel.

Students pitched their concept to a panel of restaurant operators posing as potential investors. They asked the students questions based on the pitfalls of restaurant management.

The Nevada ProStart Invitational, sponsored by the Nevada Restaurant Association Education Foundation, was held in February at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Summerlin. That's about a half hour west of the career academy, which opened in 2008 at Vegas Valley Drive and Hollywood Boulevard.

Lindsay, 33, was attracted to teaching for the job security, but the thought now makes him roll his eyes because of the draconian budget cuts proposed for next year.

After 15 years in the food industry, Lindsay likes the idealism and creativity of working in a kitchen with teens.

"This is where food will be the purest," he said.

The student chefs have not become jaded. They haven't yet picked up bad habits.

They are not pushing out food factory style from an assembly line.

The students also "don't know right from wrong," Lindsay said.

"The only thing they do know is if they stand in front of 120 people with a disappointed look on their faces, they know they have failed."

The student chefs cook for the school's annual dinner-theater show and various school social functions, such as the retirement parties for outgoing Clark County School Board members.

Lindsay said he tested the imagination of two "unfocused and we'll say mischievous" students by asking them to prepare cannoli for a school reception.

The students wrapped Chinese wonton skins around a knife sharpener and dipped them into a fryer to create the tube-like shell. They filled the pastry with an orange chocolate cream and dusted them with pistachios.

"That was the hors d'ouevres we passed out," Lindsay said.

The school kitchen is so busy that Lindsay scrawls messages with a marker pen on the glass panes of his office and the food storage room.

There are reminders to purchase more sun-dried tomatoes and kitchen rules such as, "Clean up as you go."

A gourmet, Lindsay keeps a stash of truffle oil and an artisanal salt with a smoky flavor that he purchased in Italy.

"It's little things like that kids are not going to get unless they spend a lot of time in the industry," he said.

Learning the secrets of the trade gives 17-year-old Spenner a sense of belonging.

"One of the reasons why I love it here is that they treat you like adults," Spenner said.

Until East Career and Technical Academy, he was a picky eater who didn't care much for food.

Spenner transferred to the career academy as a sophomore because he was miserable at a traditional, comprehensive high school.

"I realized I was gay, and that didn't help," Spenner said. "School children are not very accepting. I met Chef Chris. He said, 'Hey, your life sucks but there's a whole other world here.' "

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.