Hard work, good grades, and a lot of broken eggs paid off for Melanie Vives and Uriah Thompson, students of Queens’ Long Island City High School, who both received full-tuition scholarships towards their Bachelor’s Degree in the Culinary Arts during the C-CAP Cooking Competitions for Scholarships are the culmination of the C-CAP high school program for underserved teenagers at risk of leaving high school without job or college prospects. The C-CAP program offers direction, skills, and scholarships for kids to pursue careers in the culinary arts.
The competition re-created the intensity of a four-star restaurant kitchen for the high school seniors facing off in a savory and sweet cooking challenge. Within a two-hour time limit, each competitor prepared a two-course French meal: Sûpreme
Poulet Chasseur avec Pommes Château (hunter’s chicken with tourné potatoes) and
Crêpes Sucrées — dessert crepes with pastry cream and chocolate sauce. The students were judged and critiqued by top chef judges in their areas on their dish’s taste and presentation, and their organization, sanitation, work flow, timing, techniques and skills.
Melanie will attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and Uriah will study at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island come fall. Sara Montesdeoca, also a student from Long Island City High School earned the Russell Ferber Foundation scholarship valued at $51,920. Sara will work towards her Associates Degree in baking and pastry at the Culinary Institute of America. The Monroe College full-tuition scholarship was awarded to Sarah DeJesus of Truman High School and Hipolito Torres of August Martin High School. Valued at $49,344 each, Sarah and Hipolito will study at the state-of-the-art Culinary Arts Center at the New Rochelle Campus.
James Daversa, sous chef of Lure in Miami and C-CAP alumnus received the Daniel Boulud Full-Tuition scholarship to the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France at the ceremony. James will have the opportunity to study abroad for five weeks beginning in May. This scholarship is valued at $15,000.