The Art of the Plate

2019 South Carolina ProStart Teams Get Schooled

On January 11, 2019 ProStart competition teams met at the Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College for the very first statewide competition training. The training program was a result of South Carolina Restaurant Association and ProStart Director Douglas O’Flaherty, CIC Dean Michael Saboe and Department Head Michael Carmel working together to provide a skills day to better prepare the students and their mentors for the competition that will take place in March in Greenville, SC.

Students took seminars throughout the day in knife and organization skills, plate presentation, cooking execution, dessert plating and garnishing, chocolate work and menu and costing development. CIC chefs worked one on one with the individual team members detailing the expectations of competing from the judge’s perspective. Students took notes and soaked in the information I order to better prepare them for the state and hopefully the national competition.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for students to be mentored by experienced chefs, who have competed before, and understand the elements that go into successfully competing,” said Chef Carmel. Christal VanWickler, Education Coordinator of the SCRLA- SC ProStart agreed, “The opportunity for these students is priceless. This is first year we have done this type of workshop. Our goal is to raise the quality and experience of our competitors and school teams.”

Although it was long day for many of the teams, taking into account the drive to and from Trident Technical College, the teams and their mentors came away with great pointers and ideas.