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Underserved Teens To Compete For College Funds

Annual Cooking Competition to Award Six Figure Scholarships

CHICAGO, March 9, 2020 – The culinary mettle of 11 students from fi ve Chicago public high schools in underserved neighborhoods will be tested on Saturday, March 14, when they compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and prizes at the annual Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) Cooking Competition for Scholarships at Robert Morris University. The teens, who beat out 32 other C-CAP participants in a series of preliminary competitions, will be tasked with preparing two plates of two different dishes, an entrée and a dessert, in two hours. One plate of each dish will be judged by a panel of food experts purely on presentation, while the other will be evaluated on taste alone. The preparations of the two dishes – Hunter’s Chicken with Turned, Sautéed Potatoes and Crêpes with Pastry Cream and Chocolate Sauce – involves a number of skills, including, knife, sautéing, sauce building and plating, the mastery of which is essential to secure a cooking role in a professional kitchen.

This year’s competition is particularly meaningful as it is part of the year-long celebration of C-CAP’s 30 years of empowering underserved youth through the culinary arts. The nonprofit, founded by noted culinary educator and cookbook author Richard Grausman in 1990, annually works with 150 public high schools nationwide to support 15,000 students to develop their interest and skills for careers in the culinary and hospitality industry through: job training and internships: curriculum enrichment for culinary classrooms; career exploration and advisement; college consultation; teacher professional development; and product donations for classrooms.

That translates to C-CAP benefitting more than 350,000 students and bestowing more than $62 million in scholarships over three decades. Since the 1992 institution of C-CAP in Chicago, the organization has served 890 students and awarded more than $9,100.00 in scholarships to competition winners. Annually C-CAP works with nearly 1,800 teens in 18 of the city’s public high schools.

Among notable Chicago C-CAP alumni are: INSERT ONE; Mariely Santisteban, restaurant and bar manager, of Sheraton Grand Chicago; and Jose Fontanez, executive chef of Marriott Hotels, who will be a judge at this year’s competition

Fontanez will be joined by eight other judges, including: Anthony Espinosa, Sous Chef, W Hotel Chicago – City Center; Tashayanna Young, Chef Manager/Caterer ; and Bernita Outlaw, Chef Manager Caterer, Shakespeare Rose Culinary Kitchen; and Lisa Williams, foodservice professional

For the March 14 cooking competition – one of the six to be held during March and April under the auspices of the C-CAP programs in Arizona, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, DC that will award approximately $2 million in scholarships* – the students are allowed some slight creativity in how the dishes are plated. However, the recipes give clear guidelines on general expectations. All ingredients are provided except for the chicken stock and glace, which students prepare with their instructors and bring to the competition, along with all their equipment and uniforms. They can present the two dishes in whichever order they wish.

The 2020 C-CAP Cooking Competition for Scholarships for Chicago will take place on Saturday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Robert Morris University, 401 State Street, Chicago The winners and the nature of their scholarships will be announced at an awards ceremony on May 15.

*The exact amount if total scholarships to be awarded to competition winners in 2020 will be determined by mid-April.

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