COD culinary students win gold medal

Five College of DuPage culinary students took first place and earned a gold medal during the recent American Culinary Federation's Illinois State Competition.

Team captain Shin Balagtas of Glendale Heights was joined by Eric Estrada of Warrenville, Ashley Sabo of Naperville, Casey Waltemath of Elmhurst and Jess Worthen of Glen Ellyn. It was the second consecutive year the team placed first in the state and the first year winning gold. The team now advances to the regional competition this month in St. Louis.

"To have back-to-back wins at the state level is a huge accomplishment," said Tim Meyers, professor of culinary arts at College of DuPage.

"Some schools have been competing for 10 or 15 years, and this was only our fourth time competing at the state level. We're fortunate to have learned so much each year going head-to-head against the best schools in the state."

The competition consists of two phases. In the first, teams have 70 minutes to demonstrate skill sets and are critiqued on their methods and techniques. The second involves cooking.

Each team was told in advance it would make Poulet Saute Saint-Lambert, a classical French chicken dish, and then needed to build a four-course meal around it. Teams had 90 minutes to make everything from scratch, with the first course being presented before the 70-minute mark.

Students are allowed to compete for two years, and COD's team featured four returning members - Balagtas, Estrada, Sabo and Waltemath. Balagtas said she approached this year determined and focused.

"Winning state for the first time and placing fifth in regionals last year gave the team a lot of confidence," she said. "This year we made sure to stay confident, but not cocky. When we all got together for our first meeting to talk about this year, we advised each other to stay levelheaded and work harder this year to reclaim our title."

Working with coaches Meyers and culinary arts instructor Michael Maddox, the team began training twice a week starting in late August, and even spent time together over winter break.

"During practices, we always ask each other how each of us can be more efficient in a certain skill or during the cooking portion," Balagtas said. "When it came down to choosing a new teammate, it was difficult at first. There were a few good candidates, Jesse Worthen included.

"But the team unanimously agreed that Jesse was our guy. We all showed him the ropes and he caught on very quickly. We're all proud of him and how much he has grown with us over the past few months."

Although the College of DuPage team took first place last year, the awarding of medals is based upon point totals, and the team received silver (no team received gold). This year they aimed higher.

"Taking first and winning gold at state is a major accomplishment. We were all ecstatic," Balagtas said. "We actually thought a gold medal was a myth, but they do hand them out, as we fortunately learned. But now winning state is in the past. Our next goal is to win regionals and go to nationals."

For information about the culinary arts program, visit cod.edu/programs/culinary.