Community Corner

Culinary Students Compete in Cooking Contest for Job at Prasino

Art Institute of St. Louis students participated in cooking competition for a chance to work at new eco-friendly restaurant.

Eight teams of culinary students from the Art Institute of St. Louis went head-to-head in a cooking competition Friday.

All were vying for the opportunity to put a dish on the menu of Prasino, the new eco-friendly restaurant going in the Streets of St. Charles development at Fifth Street and Interstate 70.

Prasino teamed with the Art Institute of St. Louis on the cooking contest to offer students a way to integrate their classroom experience into the real world.

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“This is definitely a way we can create a relationship with the Art Institute and allow students to do a stage, an unpaid time in the kitchen, done for experience," Prasino Executive Chef Jared Case said.

The students presented a salad and an entree to the judges who included Case, Lynn Krause, director of culinary arts at the Art Institute of St. Louis, Coreen Savitski, reporter for Show Me St. Louis, and St. Charles City Council President Laurie Feldman.

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The students could choose to work with New York strip steak, Alaskan salmon and a variety of vegetables.

Jazmyn Hornaday was named the winner after presenting a spinach salad with poached apples, goat chees and dried cherries and an entree of grilled salmon served over sauteed green beans and roasted fingerling potatoes. Her dish will be on the menu at Prasino.

"There was one or two plates that came to our table and in my mind they showed a balance, the techniques were solid," Case said. "They were nailed to the point where I'd be happy to work with you and position your dish on my menu."

Hornaday will have an opportunity to work at Prasino as a line cook or prep chef after she finishes school.

"I was excited," Hornaday said after she was announced the winner. "I was surprised."

Gladessa De Los Reyas, 20, said she started at the Institute in July. She said the most nerve-wracking time in the contest was when she had to describe her dishes to the judges. Still, she was glad she competed.

“I wanted to experience the intensity of it,” she said.

Jazzmin Griffith, 22, prepared a beet salad with grilled salmon and a coffee-marinated New York strip steak with wasabi sauce over garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach. 

“This is definitely a very amazing opportunity,” said Jazzmin Griffith, 22. “I’m surprised more students didn’t try.”

Lynn Krause said about 14 students participated in the competition. Many partnered up and worked in teams of two.  

“They did a lot of research,” she said. “We took them straight out of their comfort zone into the deep end and they came out swimming. This will take them out into the work world.”


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