The culinary team from Madison Area Technical College (MATC) was awarded first place and a gold medal in the Hot Food Competition portion of the 2008 College Student Culinary Arts Competition held this March in Milwaukee.  The winning MATC team consists of Ben Coggin, Rebecca Bender, Sally Jarrett, Darren Putney and Josef Powell.

The College Student Culinary Arts Competition consists of 2 unique competitions for students, the College Team Hot Food Competition and the College Student Culinary Arts Cold Plate Competition.  Both portions of the competition are held by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education Foundation to give students the opportunity to exercise their culinary skills and showcase their talents.  The event is part of the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo, Wisconsin’s largest foodservice industry trade show. 

Second place in the competition was awarded to Fox Valley Technical College and team members Stephanie Kretschmer, Josh Powel, James Kopp, Colin Madden, Elaina Schueler.  The third place team from Moraine Park Technical College consisted of Steve Jepson, Ben Zirbel, John Dana, Mike Wetzel and Mike Kiehnau. 

Using either beef or veal as the meat for their entrée, students designed and presented beautifully plated meals that were judged by experienced chefs from around Wisconsin. Judges used a 100-point scale to evaluate each plate and awarded gold, silver and bronze medals to the top-ranking entries.  Cash prizes were also awarded to the first, second and third place competitors.

The Wisconsin Beef Council and the Veal Committee of the Wisconsin Beef Council sponsored this year’s College Student Culinary Arts Competition.

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Since 1933, the Wisconsin Restaurant Association has been dedicated to the promotion, protection and improvement of the foodservice industry.  The Wisconsin Restaurant Education Foundation’s mission is to promote food service as a professional career path; attract and educate future industry leaders; and provide quality training for those already working in the industry.