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Thanksgiving got started a little early for students in the culinary arts program at St. Philip's College Wednesday at the 2008 Turkey Taste-off at Central Market.
The annual event at the H-E-B specialty store at 4821 Broadway is a contest among culinary arts students, and the contest is judged based on taste, variety and presentation.
Team Prudhomme, the winning team, had traditional Thanksgiving items such as turkey, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes as well as unique items such as corn soufflé.
The members of Team Prudhomme, all sophomores are: Michelle Villareal, Catina Carson, Jennifer Ruiz, José Hidalgo and Matt Lee and Regina Lee.
The three teams of six students took weeks to prepare for this event.
"We started menu planning about three weeks ago and started buying the foods and preparing them about a week ago, so a lot of thought goes into the menu long before the event is started," culinary arts sophomore Jose Hidalgo said.
Team Escoffier member Vilma Aguayo-Gaona, culinary arts sophomore, agrees that the process is long and takes planning.
"We spent time coming up with the menu, recipes and elements of the presentation," Aguayo-Gaona said. "All together, it was a month-long process for planning."
The judges this year were Michael Valdez, news anchor for Fox 29; Mary Martini, manager of Central Market cooking school; Elizabeth Ruiz, news reporter for KTSA radio; Charity McCrudy, news reporter for WOAI radio; and Jenny Herman, staff writer for the San Antonio Current.
Although there was only one winning team, Will Thornton, program director for the department of tourism, hospitality and culinary arts, believes that is a good experience for the students learning how to cook, competition style. "Students who finish culinary arts at St. Philip's have to compete, which helps them prepare for their career," Thornton said. "Once completing the degree program, they will be a certified culinarian."
The other participating teams were Team Escoffier, which came in third place, and Team Childs, coming in second place, all of which worked hard and long hours, Thornton said.
"The teams have been working nonstop since Monday," Thornton said. "Tuesday night they were here (Central Market) till about midnight. They came back this morning at 4 a.m. and have been working straight since."
The competition started at 11 a.m. and winners were announced about an hour later.
One of the judges, Martini, discussed the process of picking a winner for the competition.
"It was difficult to pick a winner; each group had something unique to bring," Martini said. "It was very close. Everything to me seemed to be seasoned perfectly. Everything was tasty and creative, and each team had something stand out."
As close as the competition was, a winner had to be chosen, and Martini and the rest of the judges believed Team Prudhomme had the edge. "Team Prudhomme overall was perfect," Martini said. "The seasoning, presentation, variety - it was all perfect."
The winning team used democratic methods to make group decisions during the process.
"We did a lot of voting," Hidalgo said. "It was very collaborative coming up with ideas, recipes and just thinking about what we can serve for Thanksgiving."
Martini believes this event, which has run 13 years, and St. Philip's culinary arts program are important for San Antonio.
"A school of this caliber and quality is important," Martini said. "Having this event lets the public know of the quality of culinary education available in San Antonio. It makes this city a food destination, and we would love this event to continue."
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