Top Teen Talent Scholarship Competition

Dream. Explore. Discover

Is your dream to be a chef? Do you have passion for food? How about a passion to be in the kitchen? The Chef’s Academy wants to help fulfill your passion!

Take an exploration through your favorite recipes and make it your own. The Chef’s Academy is offering 15 participants help with their dreams of being part of something. The Top Teen Talent Scholarship Competition is for current high school junior and senior grade level students.  It’s simple. Fill out the application on The Chef’s Academy Web site to enter. To start, all you need is your best recipe, a picture of it completed and a short essay. You can also download the application directly from the Facebook fan page.

Make sure your applications are in by Friday, February 4, 2011, and don’t forget to tell all your friends and family what you’re doing. The awesome thing about this scholarship is that your friends and family can help!

The two-part competition will make use of The Chef’s Academy’s social media presence as well as its brick-and-mortar kitchens. In phase one, applicant’s submitted recipes as well as an original photo of the dish will be displayed on The Chef’s Academy Official Facebook fan page, where fans of The Chef’s Academy can vote for their favorite. All voting will end promptly at Midnight on February 25, 2011.  The top Fifteen (15) Official Entry’s in terms of Votes garnered will advance to the Second Phase of the competition.  The Chef’s Academy will begin contacting the Fifteen (15) Finalists on or around February 28, 2011. 

In Phase Two, selected fan favorites will compete in the Cook-Off Competition held in Indianapolis, Indiana at The Chef’s Academy on March 19, 2011. The selected finalists will prepare a menu issued in advance by The Chef’s Academy.

The Finalists will scored by a Judges Panel, consisting of professional chefs will evaluate and score each Finalist on their technical skills based on the following criteria:  Knife skills, safety and sanitation, mise en place, cooking techniques, and clean up.  Scores in these areas will comprise fifty percent (50%) of the Finalists total score.  The remaining fifty percent (50%) of the Finalists score will be based on the judges’ scores for taste and flavor, texture and doneness, portion size, temperature, presentation and knife skills exam.  All decisions by the judges are final, binding and non-disputable.

The First Place winner of Phase Two of The Chef’s Academy Top Teen Talent Competition will receive a full-tuition scholarship* to The Chef’s Academy.  The Second Place winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship to The Chef’s Academy.  The remaining 13 finalists will each receive a $1000 scholarship to The Chef’s Academy. 

The Chef’s Academy is more than just a Culinary Institute; it’s a place to discover your skill and empower your passion.

What are you waiting for?

*In the event that you are offered a scholarship of any amount, the scholarship awards are contingent on acceptance to The Chef’s Academy and tuition scholarships are awarded evenly over each term throughout the given program. Scholarships awarded are for the one (1) declared program that a student has upon entry to The Chef’s Academy. The tuition scholarship covers academic tuition and may not be applied against fees, housing, living expenses, or program supplies and may not be transferred. In the event that the scholarship recipient’s education is terminated, either by the school or by the student, the scholarship becomes null and void.  Scholarship recipients must maintain a 2.75 GPA or higher during his/her studies at The Chef’s Academy to continue to receive said scholarship. A GPA of less than 2.75 will result in the forfeiture of any remaining balance on the scholarship. http://www.thechefsacademy.com

Breaking Ground

Breaking ground on your first day of work for most is learning your way around the office.  When I look back to breaking ground my first week of work at my new job, I'm going to have the most colorful story to tell.  

I started my job at The Chef's Academy Morrisville, NC Campus on November 29, 2010, the day before the official ground breaking!  Talk about exciting.  Wihin thirty-five minutes of my first day I was at the airport picking up Chef Tony Hanslits and meeting Chef Jeffrey Bane and off to a meeting on my own with MMI Public Relations Agency in Cary, NC.

The most exciting part though, was the day of the official ground breaking.  Not only was I surrounded by the delicious aroma of the pork tenderloin and chicken satay on the grill, but I was among a crowd of chefs, executives, elected officials, including Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco and Morrisville Mayor Jackie Holcombe and community members that were also excited to be there.  Everything went right, as it should have, the turnout was unbelievable, the food was a success and the speeches hit home to all guests.  

It is important to see where The Chef's Academy comes from and what they stand for; to hear the speeches and learn more about who we [The Chef's Academy] are, and how the community perceives us, was exciting, rewarding, and encouraging.  Exciting because I know I am going to be a part of this schools from the beginning here in North Carolina, rewarding because I was able to see the respect and enthusiasm that The Chef's Academy and Harrison College receive from the community, and encouraging because it made me want to encourage other people to be involved and able to be a part of this awesome experience.

The ground breaking was a HUGE success.  My first week was fast pace and full of excitement.  The ground breaking ceremony could not have gone better.  It not only marked the beginning of the new The Chef's Academy existence in North Carolina, but also the start of something new for a lot of people and their families around the Triangle and at the Indiana campus.

Micro-blog from student Clint Wood

I was part of one of the biggest graduation classes at The Chef’s Academy that graduated on Saturday the 6^th of November 2010. I would like to tell you how it felt from my point of view and what I was able to visually see happen right in front of my eyes.  

I am the middle child in my family so I have always been competitive towards my siblings, trying to get the attention of our parents since I wasn’t the first born, or the baby.  As I grew up and got out of those childish ways I realized that our parents loved us all the same.  I came to Indianapolis in 2008 and started my life at The Chef’s Academy where through term after term I continued to adapt and over-come all of the voices in my head saying, “you can’t do it!”  I am here to tell you that with hard work and perseverance you can finish your goal here at The Chef’s Academy and the feeling you will get the day you graduate will be one that you will never forget.  I was waiting for everybody to show up and when they started playing the graduation music I started tearing up, but me being a man, trying to not look like a big softy, I held it in. Going across the stage to get my degree and to shake hands with all the people that helped me through, and kept the fire burning in my life, and who kept me from giving up is wonderful.

-Clint East Wood

Micro-blog from student Hannah Kester

Being at The Chef’s Academy has been great! As a new student leaving home for the first time, I was extremely nervous. My first day of class I met so many new people that I felt like I was home. All of us became such fast friends. It definitely made the transition easier. Being away from home for the first time is tough. Moving into housing with three others girls… even harder! I was worried about having roommates that would not like me or we would not get along. I was wrong. All of us got along just fine. The thing about TCA is that they don’t let just anyone into the school. Everyone that I have met I have liked! That is a huge plus! I do not think that a single person comes into TCA and is not welcomed right away. I have only been at TCA for about a month now, but I feel like I have been there for a year. People are so nice there and understanding. It is like we have all known each other our whole lives!
            The classes at TCA are better than I could have imagined. My first day was exciting. They are so fun. I thought that they were going to be extremely hard. The way the instructors teach class and communicate with us helps me enjoy it so much more. It is not a boring class. They make it interesting and fun all the time. I absolutely love being at TCA. It was definitely the right choice of school. I think TCA is a great place for anyone especially if they are leaving home for the first time. Everyone here is like family and we all have a blast! TCA is a great school to go to!

Micro-blog from Student Faye Williams

Ever heard the song, "Somethings gotta go wrong, cause I'm feeling way too d*@# good?"  How about everything, yes, I mean everything going good for you in your life and then something totally out of your control happens to bring you to your knees?  I have!  To what first became a startling revelation that I have no business walking around in the back yard, in the dark, to breaking a leg will, and did stop me in my tracks, I realized that in order to finish school and further my career, I am going to have to take care of myself.  Right up until the day I broke my leg, I had been cramming way too much into my schedule, professional and personal life.  I couldn't allow myself to say no, for fear I might miss out of some opportunity.  As I spent endless hours, on my couch, lamenting the fact that I was incapacitated, I realized that in order to be effective, I truly needed to structure my life.  No more late nights partying, no more volunteering for every opportunity that comes down the pike, no more staying up till all hours of the weekday nights studying so as to convince myself that I must make a 100% on every test I take.  Now days, there is no partying, I am trying to cut back on volunteering for everything, I don't feel obligated to make perfect grades, even though I am still maintaining my postition on the Dean's List, and my leg is slowly healing.  I am very grateful to be back at school, and on my way to realizing my dream of becomming a chef. Faye E. Williams

Micro-Blog from Student Josh Francis

On the Cusp of a Victory

I have been with The Chef's Academy since the 8th of March of this year, and as another term comes to an end I have seen competitions come and go at the school as well as a few competitions outside of the school. My blog was due the day of The Clash of the Tailgaters, but I decided to hold off because I had two more competitions following that one. After competing in the Clash of the Tailgaters, I competed in an ACF sanctioned competition at the McFarling food show at Lucas Oil Stadium. At this competition I was the first competitor that was judged. I only earned a certificate of participation, but all of the information that I gained was priceless. This brings me to my last competition: the Huantsburg Chili Cook off in Brownsburg, IN. On my team was Rhiannon Spafford (a fellow TCA student and member of the Student Advisory board). We had a few obstacles to overcome, but we did it, and when it came down to it at the end of the day we won First Place with our Voodoo Chili that we used not just two weeks prior at the Clash competition. We took to heart what the judges and public told us, and improved upon the recipe and it paid off. Does any of this rambling have a message? Simply put, be patient and persistent when competing in the kitchen. When one doesn't win right away, they have two choices: they can quit, and not do it anymore, or they can learn from what they did and push through the disappointment that comes with loss.

My name is Josh, and I am a competitive culinarian.

Student Emily Auth Micro-blog

The Most Difficult Lesson

Life is one big lesson. For those of you who have yet to figure this out, well, I wish you luck. Learning for me is a big deal. Given unlimited funding, I would probably spend all of my time in school, studying anything and everything of interest. I am very enthusiastic to add my degree from the Chef’s Academy to my Bachelors from Indiana University in 2011, and it is unlikely I will stop there. Case in point, I love to learn.

From my perspective, most of life’s lessons are not something we acquire intentionally. Some of the hardest lessons come at the expense of others. One of my favorite anti-motivational poster quotes states: “It could be that the purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others.” Humorous but painfully frank, I try to learn from the mistakes of my peers. Unfortunately, it is more often than not my own mistakes teach the hardest lessons.

Chef Hamilton was my instructor for 101 last term. I admire him not only for his obvious skill in the classroom, but his patience with a challenging class. I didn’t think that I personally would need his help, hoping that I would pick up the material very quickly on my own. I had no idea just how wrong I was.

We began breakfast cookery, starting on the basics. It was then that I met my match: the incredible, rumored to be amazingly edible, egg. One ingredient means no margin for error. It also requires far more patience than has been required of me for awhile. This much was obvious to Chef Hamilton because I became visibly frustrated in class. I could not get my eggs over easy just right. This was evident by the growing pile of “sunny-side up” failures directly behind my station.

Chef Hamilton strolled over, wondering why I had apparently given up. With that coy, boyish smile of his he said, “Show me what the problem is.” He stood there, watching my work on egg after egg until I got it right, instructing and directing me through every step. My confidence increased as I finally turned out one single perfect over-easy egg. I was elated, and he moved on to help the next student.

I do not think Chef Hamilton realized the events that transpired that day, and probably went about his business as usual. However, I will never forget. What he taught me was not just how to make an egg. Chef Hamilton taught me the value of patience, and more importance, the value of humility. Everyone needs help sometimes, and being afraid to ask for it will never help you improve. I voted for Chef Hamilton as instructor of the term for this very reason. He has given me the confidence, patience and humility that will make me a great chef. I will never stop learning and I vow to treat my fellow students, colleagues and hopefully, proteges with the same patience and respect as Chef Hamilton did for me that day.