Schoolcraft Student Owes Success to Park's Culinary Class

Tessa Warner, culinary arts student at Schoolcraft Community College, said she remembers the late nights and long hours she put into Plymouth-Canton Educational Park's culinary team the Gourmet Club.

"I'd get home around 7, 8, or 9 p.m. on days closer to the competition," she said. 

Warner, who graduated in 2012, was a student in Diana Woodward's "Hospitality and Culinary Arts" classes at the Park. She said Woodward encouraged her to join the culinary team, which she coaches.

Now in the Culinary Baking and Pastry Arts program at Schoolcraft, she said she turned to Woodward with questions about pursuing culinary studies.

"I would be going into it blind, if I hadn't been in culinary [at the Park]," she said.

Woodward's students also work at Salem High School's student-run restaurant the Rock Cafe, where students make everything from scratch, write the menu and recipes and keep track of the budget.

[Read more about the Rock Cafe and what it offers here.]

Warner said working at the Rock Cafe is something she can put on her resume because it's a fully functioning restaurant.

"It helps you get your foot in the door," she said.

Warner says she would not be prepared if not for high school culinary experience

The culinary team would do competition simulations, she said, where the team would prepare three-course meals -- with starters, entrees and dessert -- in a 10 by 10-foot area.

"Everyone has stations and one hour to make two three-course meals," she said.

She said previous members return to watch the team prepare for competitions and often mentor, as she does.

[The culinary team is competing Sunday and Monday at the 2013 Michigan ProStart Competition in Lansing. Read more about the team and competition.]

The pressure is intense and competitors have to be ready for anything, which is why Woodward would sneak in and take the students' equipment during training.

"One time, I caught her and it was a tug of war," she said.

The team has been competing for 11 years, Woodward said, and has placed in top positions in the state for 10 of those years.

People don't realize the amount of effort the culinary team invests, she said. She said Woodward expects students to give everything they have when they're there.

The team won first at the state invitational and second place at the national competition when Warner was a student. Not only did she get recognition but she also received $130,000 in scholarships, she said.

Warner said she plans to continue at Schoolcraft with her culinary studies, an interest she picked up and developed in high school.