There were four hours on the clock, and five complex desserts to assemble from scratch.
Powdered sugar dusted the countertops as the sound of mixers took over the kitchen at the Center for Academic Achievement.
Senior Kim Morales was competing for her third time in the statewide SkillsUSA Commercial Baking competition on Feb. 21.
Morales ate up her minutes, whisking and kneading. She raced around the confined kitchen space, as three judges took notes of her every move.
“Even though the judges were always watching behind [me], I tried to keep my composure, telling myself, ‘I know what I’m doing and I've done this before,’” Morales said.
Students across Kansas who compete in this annual competition focus on technical baking skills, assembly and kitchen sanitization. This year, Morales was competing against six other students who shared the kitchen with her.
CAA Culinary Arts Instructor Kirsten Montgomery helped Morales prepare in the weeks beforehand.
About a month before the competition, SkillsUSA released instruction packets. These detailed the recipes Morales would be making for the competition, including sandwich bread, rolls, jalapeño cheddar muffins, apple galettes and chocolate chip cookies.
During her free periods and CAA classes, Morales went to the kitchen to perfect the recipes even though she won last year. She and Montgomery perfected all the recipes, which allowed Morales to barely need a recipe for the competition.
When practicing, Morales would be in the kitchen creating several desserts at once, ensuring she kept on time. She did multiple four-hour run-throughs of the competition to make sure she would be ready.
“[Morales] would stay, and she would spend four or six hours [at the CAA] during her school days and practice,” Montgomery said, “We probably did a full four-hour run through five times before she actually competed.”
Her draining hours of pacing around the CAA kitchen during practice eventually paid off when Morales won. This competition gives her a ticket to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the national commercial baking competition.
Her placement at nationals can also potentially lead to several connections and even potential scholarships — the first-place winner receives a full-ride scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Morales attended her first SkillsUSA nationals in Atlanta last year, where she placed in the top 15 out of 35 competitors.
If she wins this year, a full ride to the institute would allow Morales to pursue baking as more than just a hobby and help her achieve her end goal: opening her own pastry shop with her best friend.
“Getting into the top culinary schools with a full scholarship is really awesome because you won't have to worry about the money or the debt you go into to learn all that creative stuff that they do,” Morales said.
The national competition is twice as long as the state competition. Morales made 14 desserts in eight hours. She’ll stay in the competition kitchen from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. when the ovens shut off — with one required lunch break.
The national competition “takes a lot of guts,” according to Montgomery. Not only will her food be examined thoroughly, but so will her actions in the kitchen. Five judges were in the kitchen with Morales, watching every cut, measure and pour she performs and grading her on a rubric.
Both Morales and Montgomery are hoping she improves this year from the top 15.
The two have been perfecting some of last year’s recipes to prepare for her competition, assuming the recipes will be similar to the cranberry-orange cookies, bread and quiche she made last year. Not only does this mean mastering the orange supreme technique and crème patisserie recipe, but also having the whole CAA IT department sample the leftover desserts.
“I don't think people fully understand that doing a competition like this takes so much dedication and bravery, honestly, putting yourself on a pedestal,” Montgomery said. “I'm really proud of her for doing this, especially her second year.”
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