Select Manhattan High culinary students attended the ProStart Culinary Competition –sponsored by the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association — in Wichita.

MHS sent two teams to the competition — made up of five upperclassman and five underclassman — for the first time in three years.

“It is showing the students ability to design a menu, their knife skills, their safety and sanitation, their ability to cost on a plate, and their culinary cooking skills all in one competition,” FACs teacher Heidie Rippert said. “The competition is sponsored by the Kansas restaurant hospitality association.”

MHS students prepared for about a month in class for the state competition. Competition guidelines dictate that teams who place within the top four in competition are eligible for rewards such as scholarships, medals and trophies, as well as moving on to national competition.

“We had two teams compete,” Rippert said. “One of the teams comments from the tasting judges they were very pleased with the flavors they got from our team so that was good to hear.”

However, MHS students were a little out of place in the culinary aspect of the competition as, in the past, MHS has entered into the management portion.

“Be more prepared that was probably a big thing just cause other schools like that’s what they do culinary,” Rylie Kannady, senior, said. “That’s not exactly what we do so I just mean being prepared probably would’ve helped us a lot more.  

Despite this extra challenge, MHS believes they still performed to the highest of their abilities.

“We worked really well as a team,” Kannady said. “It was really fun, but yeah I think that overall we had a good time and worked well together.”

Students who attended the 2018 ProStart competition were exposed to new competition challenges such as cooking and pricing a three-course gourmet meal. All tools and food had to be purchased before the competition — any tools left out had to be either forgotten or re-purchased.

“The difficult thing about it is the students get two eight foot tables out in the middle of a conference room and two um butane stoves which are like little camp stoves to cook on,” Rippert said. “They have no electricity and they cannot use any battery operated equipment so it’s cooking a gourmet meal on camp stoves.”

Food that did not meet strict temperature and safety codes was thrown out and forced teams to repurchase, making packing and attention to detail essential. Competitors had to complete this three-course meal challenge in just one hour.

“There is no room for error,” KRHA’s website said, “as [teams] are evaluated on taste, skill, teamwork, safety and sanitation.”

Throughout these ordeals, Manhattan High pulled through receiving high marks from tasting judges for flavor and Team One placing sixth out of 17 teams.

“I was shaking so bad I was so nervous actually,” Rylie Kannady, senior, said. “For MHS that was our first time doing the culinary portion ‘cause previously we’ve done the management, so it was nice to just get a basis down and show to the school what we actually can do.”

The entire competition was a huge learning experience for those in attendance even though the outcome was not what they had been hoping for.

“Even though we didn’t place in the top four… learning how this competition worked as compared to the other ones we’ve been to… was the big thing we wanted to get out of it,” Rippert said.