April 2003
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt.1301

One Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts student, a senior at Saugerties High School, whipped up some baked goods that received an award of Par Excellence and earned second place standing in the baking category. For her excellent efforts, she received the prize of a four-year $1,000 renewable scholarship to Paul Smith’s College (PSC), a $500 renewable participation scholarship to PSC, and a pastry kit.

A fellow Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts student and Saugerties High School senior claimed a $500 renewable participation scholarship to PSC and a copy of Webster’s Culinary Dictionary for his creative efforts in the cooking category. The second place winner was tested on her cake decorating abilities, bread-making expertise on three different loaves, and piping skills. Her classmate was given a market basket of ingredients with exactly 30 minutes to plan a menu, then three hours to execute the recipe.

Both students, who are enrolled to attend Paul Smith’s College next year, credit Ulster BOCES Culinary Arts instructor Victor Arnao, an alumni of Paul Smith’s College, for their attending the competition.

Cooking for Scholarships is a program offered through Paul Smith’s College, which is located in the upstate Adirondack region of New York. Aspiring culinary students who participate in the competition have the opportunity to meet professional chefs and bakers, while working alongside their peers. The timed competition features two separate components, a culinary and a baking concentration. Chefs from the college serve as judges in both competitions and base their placements on the following criteria: mise en place (having all the ingredients necessary for a dish prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking), sanitation, attitude, efficiency, technique, quality, presentation, temperature and texture, the use of raw materials, grace under fire, and taste.

Amber DeBeer, assistant director of Admissions at PSC, recently visited the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center to present the students with their awards. “These students did extremely well. The competition is so fierce in this culinary arts contest...that to get where they did, they had to have a lot of skills.”