A cooking competition is underway in western Massachusetts, and it features culinary students at Westfield Technical Academy with broadcasting students capturing the action.
“I think it took us three months to like prepare and teach everything and start getting everything ready and all that and then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I think Thursday or Friday, I don’t know, but it’s like that, but it’s really cool I get to work with all my friends and I’m really proud of our shop,” said Westfield Technical Academy student Sophia Paredes.
The majority of the students involved are sophomores and juniors and they have been planning the details for months, including things like how the rounds of competition will work and what type of ingredients would be used.
“So, I am super excited about this experience. You know, last year, I lost twice, lost twice, almost missed the finals. I was so upset, but this year, I won yesterday and I’m hoping to win today. I’m super confident in my dish,” said Westfield Technical Academy student Aiden Gomez.
The students are divided into six teams of two and have 15 minutes each to come up with a delicious international style dish of their choice that will be rated by the judges. Nick Leslie, one of the chef instructors for this event, told Western Mass News that this helps prepare the students for real life situations.
“So, I think the best thing about this is a really ‘get him some real world and real industry experience’ of what day-to-day life is in a real kitchen. You know, sometimes here, yeah, we get caught up on a monotonous…kind of doing the same thing in a week a week, so this gives him something a little, little bit outside of their normal comfort zone,” Leslie explained.
Once the show wraps, the end result will consist of three “Iron Chef” style episodes that will feature judges from the food business in the local community, which will air on their Westfield Community Programming YouTube page. Steven Forni, the school’s digital media instructor, told us how it makes him feel once it’s all said and done.
“You know, I’m proud of these kids. I don’t think they know what they’re capable of until they get into something like this, and they do it outside the classroom. We talk about all this stuff, but when you come and you actually practice what you preach it’s amazing that not only for our students but for the culinary students what they’re actually capable of when they’re thrown into something is kind of crazy and hectic is this,” Forni said.
The final two teams will compete in the final round on Thursday when the winner’s name will be added to the WTA Golden Platter.