Food service industry professionals had an opportunity in late February to observe and evaluate the state’s top high school culinary and hospitality students as they competed for $700,000 in scholarships and the chance to compete nationally.
The Rhode Island Hospitality Education Foundation hosted its 13th Annual Rhode Island ProStart High School Culinary Arts, Foodservice & Hotel Management Competition at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick in Warwick on Feb. 25. The competition featured 50 talented students from six schools demonstrating skills in culinary arts, food service management and hotel management before a panel of 50 industry professionals. The top three teams from each competition are awarded medals and generous educational scholarships, while culinary competition winners will also have their winning dish featured at a Newport Restaurant Group location.
“I’m looking at the next CEOs, at the next hotel operators of tomorrow,” said Farouk Rajab, CEO and president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, as he addressed contestants before the battle began.
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WINNING HOSPITALITY: Team Evergreen Lodge from the Chariho Area Career & Technical Center won first place in Hospitality Tourism Management as part of the 2025 Rhode Island ProStart High School Culinary Arts, Foodservice & Hotel Management Competition. Pictured from left are instructor Donald Fair; Rhode Island Hospitality Education Foundation Chairman Sam Glynn; students Morgan Allen, Gavin Apice, Juliet Costa, Molley Kennedy and Olivia Swanson; Farouk Rajab, CEO and president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association; and Traci Dufresne, of the RIHA.
COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITALITY ASSOCIATION EDUCATION FOUNDATION[/caption]
The teams that competed this year included the Chariho Area Career & Technical Center, Charles E. Shea Senior High School, Exeter Job Corps Academy, Newport Area Career and Technical Center, Warwick Area Career and Technical Center, and William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School.
Students competing in the culinary arts competition demonstrated technical skills, including safe food transportation, knife skills and preparing a three-course meal using only two burners.
“I travel around the country to advocate on behalf of our industry and [in] every meeting I go to, everybody says, ‘Oh, Rhode Island, you guys have the most independent restaurants,’ and it’s a bragging point for [us],” Rajab said.
In fact, internationally renowned culinary school Escoffier recently listed Rhode Island in the top 10 among U.S. state culinary scenes over such destinations as New Orleans, stating that “Rhode Island is powered by high restaurant spending, a large percentage of independent restaurants, and strong employment numbers.”
Other competitions at the event included food service management, in which students presented a restaurant concept and developed a business plan with design boards, floor plans, marketing strategies and a menu; and hotel management, in which teams were tasked with designing a hotel property, submitting a proposal and presenting their concept to industry judges through verbal presentations, Q&A sessions and visual displays.
Rajab, who spent much of his career as a hotelier, said he was particularly intrigued by one team’s entry involving an apartment suite style of a hotel with numerous full-service components found in luxury lodgings.
The panel of judges consisted of industry professionals from across the country, as well as from the state, featuring a who’s who of the industry, such as RIHEF Chairman Sam Glynn, owner of Chomp Kitchen and Bar, who is putting the finishing touches on his new restaurant about to open in Newport; or Joanna Riggi, director of sales and marketing for the Newport Marriott, who Rajab described as one of many professionals who made hospitality their career and gave of their time on a busy workday by “lending a hand to the next ones coming up, to lift up the next person to take on their jobs.”
Winning students from all three competitions will compete at the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ProStart National Invitational competition, which will be held from May 2-4 in Baltimore.
“Dining Out With Bruce Newbury,” syndicated weekly on radio, is heard in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and Indiana. Contact Bruce at bruce@brucenewbury.com.
