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MPSI Winners Announced!
Maryland’s Top Student Chef’s Awarded over $600,000 in Scholarships
Baltimore and Howard County Students to Represent Maryland in National Competition
(Columbia, Maryland) Maryland’s top culinary and hospitality management students from 23 high schools across the state competed yesterday in the Maryland ProStart Student Invitational (MPSI), hosted by the Restaurant Association of Maryland Education Foundation, for over $600,000 in college and continuing education scholarships and the opportunity to represent the State of Maryland at the national competition in San Diego, CA in April 2009.
“Each of the students that competed in yesterday’s competition is to be commended for their commitment to their craft. The culinary arts and hospitality management are intense and highly skilled professions and these students took another step forward into a successful and rewarding career in the restaurant and hospitality industry,” said Marshall Weston Jr., executive vice president of the Restaurant Association of Maryland Education Foundation.
A panel of 30 national and local foodservice professionals judged the students in both culinary and management competitions. In the culinary competition, students were scored on proper food safety and sanitation procedures, cooking methods, food taste, team work and menu difficulty. The management competition incorporates a management level case study and a team versus team quiz bowl.
The winners of the 5th Annual Maryland ProStart Student Invitational:
Culinary Competition Winners
1st Place: Howard County Applications and Research Laboratory (ARL)
2nd Place: Carver Center for the Arts (Baltimore County)
3rd Place: Sollers Point Technical High School (Baltimore County)
Management Competition Winners
1st Place: Carver Center for the Arts (Baltimore County)
2nd Place: Howard County Applications and Research Laboratory (ARL)
3rd Place: Howard High School (Howard County)
Also honored at last evening’s awards dinner at Martin’s Crosswinds in Greenbelt, was the ProStart Teacher of the Year for the State of Maryland. Bette Mullins, Culinary Arts Teacher at the Carver Center for the Arts and instructor for this year’s winning Carver Center teams will be honored by the National Restaurant Association at their annual trade
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show in Chicago, IL this upcoming May.
The Restaurant Association of Maryland Education Foundation in partnership with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation uses ProStart as its School-to-Career program to create a highly-skilled workforce for the Maryland restaurant and hospitality industry. ProStart is a high school curriculum that is recognized by the Maryland State Department of Education as an official Career and Technology Education (CTE) program and is currently used by 80 schools in the state. Whether students are looking to enter the job market directly or making plans for college, ProStart will teach them the skills to help them get there.
In addition to representing Maryland in the National Prostart competition in San Diego, students on each first place team from Howard County ARL and Carver Center for the Arts will receive a $500 scholarship from both McCormick and Company as well Whole Foods, two sponsors of the event. The winning students in each category are eligible for scholarships ranging from $1000 to $7,500 at a number of schools around the country should they choose to attend in the future.
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The Restaurant Association of Maryland (RAM) has remained relevant to restaurateurs for over 80 years by maintaining core principles born out of the first national financial crisis. In 1927 a small group of Baltimore area restaurateurs met to deal with the challenges facing the economy and the foodservice industry. Today, RAM is a 2,000 member strong statewide trade association operated for the purpose of promoting, protecting and improving the foodservice industry in the State of Maryland. Since the very beginning, the Association has been run by restaurateurs and suppliers working not only for the benefit of dues paying members, but also for the restaurant industry as a whole. For more information about the restaurant industry in Maryland please visit our website at www.marylandrestaurants.com.
