At this year’s ProStart Competition, students get ready to prepare dishes for the judges. This event consisted of judges critiquing the students’ starter, entrée and dessert dishes.
At this year’s ProStart Competition, students get ready to prepare dishes for the judges. This event consisted of judges critiquing the students’ starter, entrée and dessert dishes.
The ProStart Culinary Team Competition helps high schoolers get hands-on professional experience in the culinary field, and has inspired the future of Rosen College culinary majors and their careers.
This annual event was held on March 8-9, where over 400 students competed, and the top schools were awarded more than $1.6 million in scholarships at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando.
The students that received recognition for their efforts in the competition were judged on different dishes that began with a starter, entrée and dessert.
Jonathan Judy, assistant department chair at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management in the Department of Food Services and Lodging Management, has been a chef for over 20 years and serves as a judge for the ProStart competition. He said it feels amazing to see Rosen College recognized for its achievements in the culinary industry and witness students being awarded scholarships for their hard work.
“It feels really good to be involved in any type of work that needs student success, especially in culinary,” Judy said. “The main thing is that the students are getting something meaningful out of this event.”
The event caters to high school students who are looking to enroll in college as a hospitality major with a focus in culinary. Judy said as difficult as this career may be, getting the experience through the ProStart event encourages students to keep cooking and learning more about working in the restaurant business.
“My advice would be to be prepared to work hard and find something that you’re passionate about,” Judy said. “Whether it’s food or beverages or a specific aspect of our industry, there’s a lot of really cool things to be interested in when it comes to hospitality.”
Judy said UCF sponsors the ProStart program and has contributed thousands of dollars for scholarships to students that take the top five places in the ProStart management and culinary competition.
Judy said ProStart encourages high school students to see what culinary and hospitality management is like professionally.
“The ProStart program gives students the opportunity to get exposure to professional cooking and the techniques that professionals use,” Judy said. “The thing that makes ProStart so amazing in my opinion is young people can really get their hands-on real-world experience while they are still in high school.”
Genyth Travis, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Rosen, said Rosen’s collaboration with ProStart encourages students to want to attend UCF after they graduate high school.
“When you hear the number $1.6 million and Rosen College is part of that collective impact, we know we are making a difference in the lives of students,” Travis said. “The Rosen College scholarships help ProStart students that decide to enroll at UCF Rosen College after high school and the scholarship helps them pay for their educational expenses. It shows students that we want them to become a UCF Knight.”
Dominic Padova, sophomore restaurant lodging association major, competed in the culinary section of ProStart two years ago with Martin County High School. He won first place and was awarded the scholarship to further his education at Rosen.
“It’s all very, very pressuring, but very fun at the same time, especially once you finish and you’re able to step off and see your dish sit next to other team’s dishes and be like, ‘Wow. I actually did that,'” Padova said. “This competition actually gives the opportunity to just take in what you’ve accomplished with your classmates, your peers, your friends and family.”
Padova said he believes winning the ProStart scholarship his senior year of high school inspired him to continue in the culinary and hospitality field. He also said winning the competition has shown him creativity is important in this field.
“The competition really, really did shift my outlook, because it opened up my horizons to job opportunities like working for Universal, Disney, and just building connections as well as getting access to colleges that really just want to help me,” Padova said. “I didn’t even know UCF had a culinary/ restaurant lodging association program before I entered the competition. It really did help me expand my horizon when it came to those options.”
Padova said that winning the scholarship encouraged his dreams and helped build confidence within himself to continue on with his education at Rosen.
“The ProStart competition definitely benefited my career inside and outside of schooling and work,” Padova said. “Just with this scholarship, it allowed me to get accepted into UCF. Due to that, I was actually able to move out of my hometown and go to the city and start building connections.”
Padova said ProStart will be a game changer for students who are still deciding if they want to make culinary or hospitality a career and if these high schoolers see it in their future.
“This event will definitely change the career for future students just because of the fact that it allows them to see what the actual field is like and how the people that they might work with in the future are going to act and behave when they’re around them,” Padova said. “It also really allows them to feel what it’s like to work in a high-stress environment while still getting a successful product.”
Jason Fridrich, senior lecturer at Rosen and judge for ProStart, said the judges at the competition work with high school teams that have made it into the finals to show them steps and techniques they can use to win first place.
“My goal is to walk into a hotel or a restaurant or hospitality business and see a former student being really successful, maybe making more money than I do and going, ‘Okay, I did my job. I did what I was supposed to. I helped,'” Fridrich said.
Fridrich said the benefits of ProStart are giving students the chance to attend UCF after winning and bonding with the judges through their cooking.
“ProStart brings potential UCF students to us,” Fridrich said. “We met them, and I’ve had several students in my class say, ‘I remember you from ProStart. You judged me. I wanted to come there because I met you or someone like you.'”
Fridrich has been a judge for ProStart for the past 10 years and said he has seen talent in students that keeps him returning, teaching kids and letting them grow as chefs.
“One of our goals at the college is to create relationships with high schools and students and the teachers and promote ourselves,” Fridrich said. “For lack of a better word, we want to create relationships where they say, ‘Yes, this is the place to go, and these are the people that can really help you advance your career.’”
Judy said ProStart gives high schoolers insight on gaining professional experience, on understanding industry expectations and understanding how intense culinary programs can be.
“We’re starting to see that after being sponsored for many years, scholarship recipients and those that have competed have come on and are working in various industry positions and are succeeding,” Judy said.
Laura Rumer, director of the educational foundation for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, said providing the scholarships to high school students helps them to continue their future goals in culinary.
Rumer said the association is the organization that runs the ProStart program in Florida, which provides support and different resources for high schoolers participating in the program.
“It helps them further their education, which we believe is valuable, and by giving a scholarship specific to the Rosen College of Hospitality, it helps encourage them to look at that school as a school of choice for their postsecondary education,” Rumer said.
Rumer said the culinary and hospitality industries aren’t necessarily difficult to succeed in, but it is difficult to keep the passion for it throughout ones whole career.
“I do think it’s an industry that requires a lot of hard work to succeed,” Rumer said. “If you love it and it’s your passion, you can work hard and become a success within this industry.”
Rumer said ProStart benefits students by helping determine if this career is meant for them while showcasing their skills to different judges and receiving honest feedback on what the culinary students can do to improve their craft.
“It gives students who participate in this competition the chance to showcase their skills and gives that extra pride of what you’ve achieved,” Rumer said. “When everyone tells you how great your food is and what a great job you’ve done, it helps you to know you’re pursuing the right field, and that confidence really helps carries the students further.”
When it comes to the number of barriers students face in the hospitality and culinary fields, Judy said dropout rates are rising among college students with culinary or hospitality as a major.
UCF Analytics shows that enrollment has dropped for hospitality management from spring 2021 with 2,669 students, to spring 2025 with 1,945 students.
In those four years, student enrollment had also diminished in the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality. Judy said the ProStart Competition gives students a chance to continue their career goals and encourages high schoolers to attend UCF.
This has become a barrier for students who want to work in the culinary field due to the costs of culinary school. With ProStart, it gives hospitality majors the opportunity to earn scholarships for their hard work and the chance to not stress about the costs as much.
Travis said most of those in the culinary field make around $50,000 a year, and in this economy, that seems like it isn’t enough to live a stress-free life. She said even though it’s important to be financially stable, students being awarded scholarships through the ProStart program helps them get settled for their future culinary career and culinary school.
“Scholarships are a motivation to work harder to place at the state and national competition, but there is also pride in representing your school,” Travis said. “The competitions allow students to travel and meet students from around the state or country so that can be a motivating factor as well.”
Culinary school costs range anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 in textbooks, culinary utensils, uniforms and college fees, according to The Chef Apprentice School of the Arts. Travis said giving high schoolers the opportunity to receive scholarships to further their education is just as important.
Travis said the two schools that will be representing Florida this year in the National ProStart Student Invitational in Baltimore, Maryland are Wekiva High School and Strawberry Crest High School. Both of these high schools are now attending nationals for Florida.
“There are more practices that include getting the local industry involved to mentor the teams, prepare them to speak in front of judges and take them shopping so each team member looks sharp in front of the judges,” Travis said. “The culinary team has to practice making their appetizer, entrée and dessert so that those students have the timing down to the second.”
Being able to create quality food in a short amount of time is important for students who are competing in the ProStart competition. Travis said this competition isn’t just dedicated to culinary specifically, but anyone in hospitality and looking to make a career out of it.
“We all need to know about teamwork and communication, public speaking, how to win and lose with grace, and finally, it’s a memory they make with their classmates and teacher that they will carry with them,” Travis said.
Travis said the event creates a community within the culinary environment for students to learn from each other and to show their efforts of hard work by their cooking.
Your comment has been submitted.
Reported
There was a problem reporting this.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Producer: Nolan Bottomley
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.
Nicholson Student Media (@ucfnsmtoday) • Instagram photos and videos
We always want to know what’s happening in our local community. Don’t hesitate to send us a tip about any and all news relating to UCF and Orlando.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
