ProStart, a national cooking program, is teaching over 118,000 students real-life experience in the cooking field. Liberty is one of the 1,700 high schools spread out across the nation that have this program. Recently, LHS had their ProStart tryouts.

   “There are two steps to tryouts,” teacher Emily Bryant said. “First of all, students had to submit a letter of intent or a letter of commitment saying why you want to be on the team, what your strengths and weaknesses are in the kitchen and the position that you want. Then they had 45 minutes to prepare an entree, an appetizer or dessert. We had three chef mentors come and help judge as well as myself. Then after the 45 minutes, the judges came in and judged their dish and  we called them in one at a time to give some feedback.”

   Several of the members had varying opinions on how they thought the tryout process went.

   “Tryouts were kind of rough this year because my dish (white chocolate mousse) didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, but I think overall the tryout process was pretty good,” senior Mikayla Hill said.

   Junior Sammy Borchardt had a different opinion.

   “Tryouts for me were fun, but it was kind of hectic because everyone was in there cooking at once. I actually went over the time limit, but I still finished well and I had good plating, which means my plate looked nice,” she said.

   Only the culinary team had to tryout, but few people realize  there is another side to the ProStart Team.

   “The management team doesn’t have to tryout. We are chosen,” junior Paige McDaniel said.

   This team has a special job that doesn’t involve cooking at all.

   “The management team comes up with a restaurant concept and then they present it to the judges at the ProStart competition,” Bryant said.

   The culinary part of the ProStart team has to use lots of their previous cooking experience for the competitions. To be on the team, members have to at least have taken Culinary ProStart 1. However, most of the members have had a love for cooking for a long time.

   “I’ve taken all of the culinary arts classes here, but I first started to fall in love with cooking in sixth grade when I was in my first FACs class. I just realized it was something I wanted to do,” Hill said.

   Borchardt agreed.

   “I’ve been cooking for a long time,” Borchardt said. “I remember being little and helping out in my kitchen at home with breakfast and other meals. I’m definitely planning on taking ProStart II next year so I can tryout for the team again.”

   The State competition is coming up in February. It will be held in Springfield. Until then, the team will continue to meet every Monday after school to practice and perfect their menu for the competition.

   “For the competition, the culinary team does an appetizer, entree and dessert. The entree has to consist of a protein, a starch and a vegetable and they have an hour to prepare that,” Bryant said.

   Hill, who was a part of the team last year, recalled what competitions felt like.

   “We were in this huge ballroom with all these different tables and we just cooked on the tables. We had an hour to do that and 15 minutes to set up, and it was kind of intimidating seeing everybody else around, but at the same time we had our own little kitchen and I could kind of breathe a little bit. It’s a lot of fun though. I enjoy going to competitions,” she said.

   After getting fourth place at State last year, the members look forward to the upcoming competition.

   “I think the competition process will be difficult, but fun,” McDaniel said.

   Only after a few practices is already taking a liking to each other.

   “Everyone has their own different hobbies and personalities,” McDaniel said.

   Hill acknowledged that she felt the same.

   “By the end of the season, we’re going to be a tight family that just supports one another. Going to competition is going to be so fun with them,” she said.