High school students are cooking up a storm

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

High school culinary arts students, from left, Darrah Simpson, Jon Crissman and Erik Grepperud, seen here in their chef’s attire, recently captured first place in a district culinary arts competition. (Will Stewart photo)

Preparing a meal of cream chicken, cornbread muffins, Waldorf salad and chocolate tarts all in an hour’s time is no easy task. It becomes that much harder when being watched and judged the entire time.

But Warren County High School culinary arts students Darrah Simpson, Jon Crissman and Erik Grepperud made it look easy recently as they managed to prepare such a meal and win a competition at the same time.

The trio took part in the district culinary arts competition conducted by the state Family, Career and Community Leader of America organization last week in Manchester. In capturing first-place honors, the team beat the team from Smyrna High School, which has won the competition for the last 16 years straight.

In such culinary competitions teams never know what they will be asked to prepare until the competition begins. Once the menu is handed out, team members have 30 minutes to plan and then one hour to cook and present all of the food.

“The competition was different than I thought it was going to be,” said Simpson. “I thought it was going to be much harder but we managed to do it.”

In competition teams are judged on their own appearance, their planning, how they followed directions, preparation skills, safety and sanitation and teamwork. Also judged are the appearance, taste and temperature of the food. Judges come from across the food service industry and includes chefs, teachers and other food service personnel.

Local culinary arts teacher and team sponsor Susan Davis said although culinary arts classes have been offered here for years, this is the first time a team from the local school has ever had enough student interest to enter competition.

“These three students are very dedicated,” she said. “They work very well as a team and I think that was what made them successful in competition.”

The students all said they have always been interested in cooking and are interested in having careers as chefs. Crissman, who currently works as a cook at Applebee’s, said his dream is to one day own his own restaurant. Both he and Simpson, who are seniors, have already been accepted by Sullivan University, a Louisville, Ky. institution which has a world-renowned culinary arts program.

For winning at the district level, the trio has earned the right to compete individually in the state culinary arts competition to be held next month in Nashville at Opryland Hotel. Winners of the competition will receive scholarships to Sullivan.

“We will be pulling for our seniors to get those scholarships,” said Davis. “I just know they will win.”