Young chefs, restaurateurs from Mansfield out to prove they’re the nation’s best
Picture the white-knuckle intensity of a televised cooking competition like Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” or “MasterChef” coupled with the inherent tension of adolescence, and you have a pretty good idea of what Mansfield students are stepping into this week when they head to the National ProStart Invitational in Baltimore, the preeminent championship for high school culinary teams in the U.S.
After finishing first in their events at the Texas ProStart Invitational in March, the Culinary Arts Team and the Restaurant Management Team from Mansfield’s Ben Barber Innovation Academy are returning to the national finals May 2 through May 4 to represent Texas, where — as in years past — they’re hoping to make a splash and earn a portion of the tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships that are up for grabs.
Since 2019, at least one team each year from the Ben Barber Innovation Academy, which offers career-prep courses for Mansfield high school students, has qualified for the National ProStart Invitational. Last year, the Culinary Arts Team finished fourth out of 48 schools. This year, they’re out to win the whole thing.
Between swigs of cold water in the team’s sweltering kitchen on the Ben Barber campus after a recent practice, student Kaden Walker said the group was confident.
“We feel our plates are strong,” he said, still buzzing from the adrenaline rush of cooking under pressure in preparation for Baltimore. “And we work well together.”
That last part is something of an understatement. The five students on the Ben Barber culinary team collectively function like a finely tuned Formula 1 engine.
For the uninitiated, commercial kitchens are notoriously edgy places, a bit like ship galleys, where personalities clash easily amid the blistering heat and break-neck pace.
That’s not the case with the Ben Barber students, however. This year’s bunch good-naturedly pelts each other with “your momma” jokes while whipping up one of the best three-course meals you’ll ever taste. When asked what an aspiring chef should focus on most, student Makayla Stephens doesn’t mention knife work or creativity.
“Communication,” she said. “The most important thing is to let your teammates know what you’re doing.”
Throughout the 60 minutes the students have to prepare a starter, entree and dessert, there’s constant chatter. Commands and reminders are answered by a chorus of “Yes, Chef!” or “Heard!” without an ounce of input from the team’s coaches, chef David Roberson and Noriko Jackson, a Japanese language teacher at Ben Barber, who observe everything silently, just like they’ll have to do in Baltimore.
The same sort of esprit de corps is evident with the other Ben Barber group heading to the National ProStart Invitational, the Restaurant Management Team, which has won the national competition twice under the tutelage of chef Jacquelyn Baker-Roberson.
Since August, the four team members have been developing a dining concept that they’ll present to the judges in Baltimore, who in turn will hit them with questions, forcing them to make the same kinds of snap decisions that restaurant owners and managers make on a daily basis.
It’s the kind of experience that will set Ben Barber students apart when they enter college and — for some — embark upon a culinary career.
“I think it’s very cool the fact that us three can talk casually in conversation to pitch our concept,” said Restaurant Management Team member Michael Forte, saying that self-assurance came from talking with CEOs of well-known dining establishments like Raising Cane’s during Ben Barber field trips.
Professional development is important, but more important are the bonds the students form with each other. Next year, all three members of the Restaurant Management Team will be attending the University of Texas at Dallas together.
“I create lots of relationships and friendships here, and it’s really fun,” said student Amber Abrego. “I really enjoy it.”
The dining industry can be fickle, and sometimes even the best restaurants teeter and collapse like a stack of plates under the weight of expectations. Others, though, somehow manage to stay the course for generations.
In recent years, Ben Barber alumni have gone onto work in kitchens at places like the Fort Worth Club. One former student is attending the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, and Hayden Hanson, a student this year, will be attending the Culinary Institute of America in New York in the fall, a school with a long list of celebrity chef graduates.
If you set high expectations for young people, they’ll more often than not rise to meet them, and that’s why chef Roberson believes the Ben Barber culinary program has been able to maintain its level of consistent success. A poster in the kitchen lists the 10 habits that don’t exist within a championship culture, things like making excuses, cutting corners and giving up.
In Roberson’s opinion, it’s that mentality, along with an intense drive, that separates good chefs from great ones, the students who make the National ProStart Invitational from the ones who don’t.
“A lot of people show up and want to be really good, and they will be,” said Roberson. “And there’s some people that show up and say, ‘I want to be great,’ and they decide that no one can outwork them. … That’s what we see with our students. This group of students, there are days I can’t run them off. I try to give them an off day, and they’re fighting me, like, ‘No, Chef, we need to work.’ I’m like, I think you’re good, and they’re like, ‘No, we want to be here.’”