Students get head start on culinary careers

A GREAT START: Lorena Rodriguez, 17, of Providence, a student at William M. Davies Jr. Career & Technical High School, was part of a team that won the Rhode Island ProStart competition in March. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITALITY ASSOCIATION
A GREAT START: Lorena Rodriguez, 17, of Providence, a student at William M. Davies Jr. Career & Technical High School, was part of a team that won the Rhode Island ProStart competition in March. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND HOSPITALITY ASSOCIATION

Three students who created a pizza-parlor business model that mimics the Subway sandwich shop assembly-line approach to making food won a Rhode Island ProStart competition, based on their studies during a two-year curriculum offered at their school.

That high school, William M. Davies Jr. Career & Technical High School, is just one of five schools in Rhode Island to offer the two-year ProStart curriculum on culinary arts and food-service management. Woonsocket last fall added the curriculum to its career and tech programs and next fall East Providence will do the same.

Davies high school seniors Lorena Rodriguez, 17, of Providence, and Caroline Velasquez, 17, of Pawtucket, won as part of teams in their respective culinary and management competitions this year and head to the national contest April 29 in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.

Rodriguez recalled practicing the cooking portion of the competition in advance three times a week from early December until early March to get the appetizer, entrée and dessert just right. Her entree, pan-seared duck breast, was a challenge to plate and tricky to adjust taste to the palette, she said.

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Velasquez, who was part of the winning management team, didn’t expect a question from the judges on March 10 about how many pizzas their business would produce, but came up with an answer that satisfied them, she said.

“These questions prepared us more for nationals,” Velasquez said. “We’re definitely seeing where we lost points and we’re going to use the judges’ comments and fix those mistakes.”

The annual competition gets a fair amount of public attention but the curriculum, sometimes offered in a single year, creates the basis for the honors with training in culinary arts and/or management, said the Davies chefs who coached the winners.

“The curriculum teaches both the culinary and management aspect, so when we enter a competition like this it’s taking all the things they’ve learned and putting it to practical use,” said management instructor and chef Peter Fangiullo.

Davies Director Victoria A. Gailliard-Garrick said the curriculum brings in real-world partners, such as Panera Bread and DeWolf Tavern in Bristol, in addition to the lessons associated with culinary arts and management.

“The value of the program is that it’s an industry-based curriculum and the teachers teaching the program are from the industry. They bring the real-life experience and applied learning into a secondary high school curriculum.”

Nicole Mattiello, director of marketing and business development at Pranzi Catering and Events, coached Velasquez, and has also hired her for the past two years, Mattiello said.

“Pranzi feels these are the future leaders of the industry, so we want to give them a chance to excel at their career goals,” she explained. “[Velasquez] is going to be a strong influence in the industry in the coming years. She expressed an interest in furthering her education and she has a very good work ethic.”

The ProStart curriculum itself leads students to work in the field, educators say. Besides Davies, Woonsocket and East Providence, the schools offering the program are the career and technical centers in Newport, Chariho and Cranston, as well as Exeter Jobs Corp Academy, said Heather Singleton, chief operating officer of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, which provided $3,000 grants to Woonsocket and East Providence to buy textbooks.

Stephen Sternkopf Jr., 22, of Providence, earned certificates in both culinary and management at Exeter last year. He started shortly thereafter as a prep cook at Matunuck Oyster Bar and is now a prep/line cook.

“I learned how to do things I didn’t know before,” he said of his ProStart training. “I knew I wanted to be working in a restaurant.”

Wendi Safstrom, vice president of programs and administration for the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation in Washington, D.C., said the program began in 1997-98 and is offered in all 50 states. Students must pass two exams and work 400 hours in a food-service place of business to earn a certificate of achievement that is recognized by employers nationwide, she said.

Exeter Job Corps Deputy Director Linda Soderberg says the curriculum aligns with what Johnson & Wales University in Providence is teaching and was a direct link for students to transition from Exeter to college and/or the workforce.

“Students who take the ProStart curriculum typically are better prepared when they go into our culinary and baking and pastry labs,” said Jim Richard, director of culinary admissions at JWU. •

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