THS students take the cake at competition
TEXARKANA, Texas — Three Texas High School culinary arts students made waves with their kitchen creations during a Skillsusa District 5 Leadership and Skills Conference last weekend.
Junior Madison Beaird received the gold medal for the commercial baking and pastry arts division of the conference, after making and decorating multiple pastries and baked goods for four hours.
“We had to make up a directions chart to make sure we got everything done. I completed everything and had five minutes left,” Beaird said. “It was stressful, but it was fun.”
For the baking portion of the conference, Beaird had to decorate a cake and sugar cookies and make pastry dough from scratch for apple galettes and eclairs. Beaird said judges liked her work with cake decorating and her apple galette and gave her tips on how to improve her sugar cookies and other pastries she created.
“It was really a shock because I did this for fun and to get closer with my culinary friends,” Beaird said of getting the gold medal. “So when I won, I really couldn’t believe it.”
Junior Taliyah Gilmore got the silver medal for her achievements in the culinary arts division of the conference, while senior Isabel Silva got the bronze medal for the same category. They had to make airline chicken with a honey glaze, carrots, green beans, jasmine rice and a mushroom sauce.
Gilmore said she began to learn about cooking from her father, who is also a chef.
“He had an order for a family, so we were making their food, and he let me make one of their whole pies,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore said the program has helped her improve her culinary skills and become more creative.
Silva said she grew up in Venezuela and always cooked with her friends. She especially enjoyed baking birthday cakes for her friends.
“We would cook together, and it was just so fun,” Silva said.
Silva said the culinary program has improved her teamwork skills, which is something she often struggled with, as she is very quiet.
“This definitely made me more of a better leader, because I know how to communicate my ideas better,” Silva said. “I know how to work better with a team without getting overwhelmed.”
Silva isn’t sure what her future holds yet, but she has ideas.
“I was thinking about either going into culinary (school) after high school or doing business (education) because I want to have my own Venezuelan food restaurant,” Silva said.
Silva said she loves coming to the culinary arts class at THS because it’s a safe place for her.
“Whenever I’m feeling a little stressed, I can always come in here and just distract myself with cooking,” Silva said. “The people in here are so amazing.”
Culinary Arts Instructor Cory House said it’s great seeing his students go from not knowing much about cooking to learning a completely new skill set.
“There’s a lot more science, a lot more technique and just a lot more know-how to it,” House said. “They can step out of high school and be an entrepreneur and start their own food truck business or go and manage a restaurant kitchen, or if they want to go out in the world and attend a post-secondary culinary institute in one of the larger cities, they can.”