KHS culinary team prepping for nationals, raising trip funds

Photo By Brandon Beach | Andrew “Chef” Dager, left, a culinary arts teacher at Kaiserslautern High School, discusses knife techniques with Jacob Caballero, a KHS senior. Caballero, along with members of the KHS culinary team including Tara Gentz, Quatia Thompson, Charlie Thalmann and Miles Richardson, bested the competition to win last month’s DoDDS-E culinary title. Next up for the team is a trip to Anaheim, Calif., to compete at the national tournament in Disneyland April 18-20. (Photo by Brandon Beach, 21st Theater Sustainment Command)  

KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, GERMANY

03.13.2015

Courtesy Story

21st Theater Sustainment Command

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – Slicing through last month’s competition in Europe has earned the Kaiserslautern High School culinary team a spot at the national competition in Anaheim, California, April 18-20.

“It feels good knowing their hard work has paid off,” said Andrew Dager, the school’s culinary arts teacher, known simply as “Chef” around campus. “The kids worked three months so to see them win is a great feeling.”

At the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe culinary competition, held Feb. 24-26 at the KHS classroom kitchen, the team’s mouth-watering dishes enticed the judges and earned them a ticket to nationals.

The national competition is an annual event hosted by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. This year, it will be held at the famed amusement park, Disneyland. It’s a chance for the champions from 48 different states, including DoDDS winners, to compete on the national stage for scholarships.

“You’ll see a number of higher-level cooking techniques being used at the national competition, so they really have to step up their game to compete,” said Chef.

Team captain Tara Gentz and her four teammates, Jacob Caballero, Quatia Thompson, Charlie Thalmann and Miles Richardson, have been doing a lot of prepping since their big DoDDS-E win -- honing knife skills, tweaking their menu and closely mimicking the kitchen environment they expect to encounter at nationals.

“We set up the kitchen how it will be at nationals. You have to cook exclusively on tables. You get two butane burning grills instead of a stove, and you don’t have running water, so we are learning to use buckets,” said Gentz.

Like a sports team practicing for a championship game, the team has increased its hours in the kitchen, often running through their culinary routines as much as three times a day -- in class, during seminar and after school. With the extra hours, the team is becoming a tighter unit.

“We are like family. You get to cook together and learn things, and then you feel like you have a talent in the world,” said Gentz.

Travelling to Disneyland will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these five extraordinary young cooks, but the trip does come with a hefty price tag, upwards of $12,000, given the cost of plane tickets for students and chaperones, hotel reservations, daily meals, equipment and food for the competition.

“Having only a month to earn funds is really putting us under the wire. If anybody wants to donate, they can contact the high school’s PTSO or myself,” said Chef.

For more information on the KHS culinary program and how you can help get the team to Disneyland, please contact Andrew Dager at DSN 489-7300 or ([phone].

• Date Taken: 03.13.2015
• Date Posted: 03.13.2015 10:49
• Story ID: 156915
• Location: KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, DE