Teens smoke competition at cooking contest

The term food service industry conjures visions of cafeterias and industrially produced meals.

Nothing could be further from the truth for local students who participated in the Family Career and Community Leaders of America national competition in July in Anaheim, Calif.

Local students Vernon Jordan, a Streamwood High School graduate, and Kevin Imhof, a Schaumburg High School graduate, along with Angela Valderrama-Diaz of West Aurora formed the Illinois team that placed second in the 2007 FCCLA culinary arts competition. Streamwood culinary arts instructor Chris Brabec accompanied the teens to the competition as their adviser. About 40 teams from across the nation participated.

Jordan, Imhof and Valderrama-Diaz were chosen to represent Illinois after achieving the three highest scores in state FCCLA competition earlier this year while still in high school. All three have graduated and are attending culinary schools this fall.

The national competition was based on the same premise as state FCCLA contests.

"They were given a specific amount of time to prepare, and then time to organize and clean up," Brabec said. "They were judged on their appearance as well as their culinary skills, their professionalism as a team, their ability to work well as a team and their ability to work on time."

Jordan, who now attends Kendall College in Evanston, said the team was allotted about an hour total to prepare the meal and 30 minutes to clean up afterward. The recipes consisted of a chicken entree, potatoes, vegetable and dessert.

"They did not see the recipes prior to the competition," Brabec said. "Plus, they were working in a kitchen they had never been in."

The team learned how to deal with such elements of surprise during a six-week training session in May and June at Kendall College.

"It was like a regular class," Jordan said of the training sessions. "The chef there (at Kendall) taught us different things, different ways to cook, how to cut and dice."

Jordan's role in the competition was to prepare a pound cake with strawberries in a glaze topping.

All three of the students intend to make a career of preparing food. For Jordan's part, making meals is something that just comes naturally.

"Everywhere you go you see people eating food and enjoying that," he said. "I like seeing other people in the world who like to cook and I want to be a part of that."