ProStart is a culinary arts program that allows students to go and compete in a variety of cooking competitions to get experience with their team and get judged on. Culinary arts teacher Joseph Koons advises the team that consists of sophomore Kenny Caswell, junior Anthony Medovich, senior Kevin Paris, junior Zach Harris and junior Gracie Wynns.

ProStart will have a competition held at Holland College in Frisco Feb. 7 and 8.

“Prostart is like an Iron Chef competition,” Koons said. “Students have one hour to complete an appetizer, entree and a dessert from start to finish and they have to bring their own food and own equipment.”

All five students have been practicing and analyzing their recipes all year. 

“We make the same three meals all season,” said Caswell. “This year we are making flash seared beef carpaccio, New York strip and sadly we currently do not have a name for the dessert yet.”

ProStart is not all just making meals for judges to try, there is also a lot of mathematics and science involved.  

“You have to analyze the recipes,”  Koons said. “Like for example when creating a double boiler, they’re talking about the steam and the radiant heat that comes off of it, they are able to identify why egg yolks cook a certain way. They have to cost out those recipes for the final menu cost.”

The curriculum comes from the National Restaurant Association to train the students to cook in high-quality restaurants.   

“There are a lot of high-quality chefs,” Paris said.

The team feels like they have good chemistry and that is why they all get along together. 

“We have a great team this year and we are finding a way to work with each other to where everyone is heard,”  Wynns said.