5 Students Win Scholarships to Culinary Schools

All five San Fernando Valley contestants in a citywide high school cooking contest sliced, diced and poached their way to victory, winning valuable scholarships to culinary academies across the country.

Mario Gonzalez, Rosa Rivas and David Ruiz from Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, and Robert Servin and Rosalinda Valdespino from Monroe High School in North Hills, all seniors, each took home scholarships in the annual Careers Through Culinary Arts Program contest.

Crystal Phillips, a junior at Sylmar High School, won honorable mention in the contest, held Wednesday at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. The winners were announced Friday at an awards banquet held at the Border Grill in Santa Monica.

The annual competition is sponsored by CCAP, a New York-based nonprofit culinary training organization, and administered by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s career development department.

In the competition, students were asked to prepare poached chicken breast in chive sauce with vegetables, and cream-filled crepes with chocolate sauce. Noted Los Angeles chefs, including Gary Clauson from the Bel-Air Hotel and John Sedlar from Fusion restaurant, served as judges.

“The kids were unbelievably excited,” said Kim Berney, home economics and catering teacher at Polytechnic. “Rosa is a little numb right now,” said Berney, referring to Rivas, who won a $22,760 scholarship to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Servin won an $11,000 scholarship to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco; Valdespino won a four-year, $12,000 scholarship to attend culinary classes at Cal Poly Pomona; Ruiz won a $1,000 scholarship to Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and Gonzalez won a $500 scholarship from Les Dames d’Escoffier/CCAP to apply to culinary studies anywhere he wishes to go.

Five students from other Los Angeles high schools who participated in the contest also received full or partial scholarships to culinary schools, LAUSD officials said.