Why compete?

It’s all about the dough.

Let’s be real about this. C-CAP might as well spell opportunity – an opportunity to both prove yourself as a skilled, capable (budding) chef, and an opportunity to jump-start serious training for a big-time career.

“My students have won from $1,000 to $72,000,” says Peoria High School’s culinary arts teacher Roselyn Richard.

But it takes determination, dedication, practice – and choices. C-CAP’s competitions fall just after Peoria’s spring break.

For Richard’s students, that means making a choice between time off or time practicing.

“Jill (Smith, executive director of C-CAP in Arizona) told them you need to make the salad and the omelet at least 50 times. They have the recipes,” Richard explains, “but getting the balance, the setting – it takes some initiative to keep at it until you have it down exactly.

“The student who won the big scholarship came to talk with the current class and said, ‘Look at it this way – spring break or $72,000. You guys decide.’”