America’s Best High School Chef

CINY believes in culinary competitions that help identify, recognize and reward excellence among high school students. Each year, we host America’s Best High School Chef Competition (ABHSC), a national competition dedicated to providing a high quality educational experience and strengthening the culinary capabilities of high school seniors.

On March 10, 2018, up to 48 students will be selected to participate in the ABHSC competition and 12 will participate in the pastry competition.

Student competitors will be asked to demonstrate their skills in our award-winning Culinary Arts Center in New Rochelle, NY. You must be a high school senior to apply.

At the end of the competition, the top-rated students will be acknowledged as America’s Best High School Chef and Pastry Chef.

Apply now!

First Prize

  • The right to wear the title "America’s Best High School Chef"
  • Full academic scholarship for either the AAS Culinary Arts Program or the AAS Baking and Pastry Arts Program at CINY
  • The opportunity to apply to CINY’s study abroad program for a semester in Italy

Second Prize

  • The right to wear the title "America’s Best High School Chef"
  • Partial academic scholarship for either the AAS Culinary Arts Program or AAS Baking and Pastry Arts Program at CINY
  • The opportunity to apply to CINY’s study abroad program for a semester in Italy

Third Prize

  • Partial academic scholarship for either the AAS Culinary Arts or AAS Baking and Pastry Programs at CINY (values to be determined based on student performance)

*Please note: Academic Scholarships are based on meeting GPA Requirements, graduation from an accredited high school and other institutional requirements. The scholarship value is based on the current tuition rate and may rise with tuition increase. If a student has received a CINY scholarship from a previous competition, CINY will honor the scholarship with the higher award. Scholarships are not cumulative.

Culinary Competition Guidelines

Basic Skills Round Students whose applications are accepted into the ABHSC competition will be required to compete in the Basic Skills Round.

Each student will be assigned to one of three competition flights of 16 students for a total of 48 slots in the Basic Skill Round. The top 16 students as computed by overall score, regardless of which flight they compete in, will move on to the semi-final Salad Basket Round.

Each student will have a total of 25 minutes to demonstrate their skills by completing the following tasks:

  • Prepare 1 cup of julienne potatoe where the julienne measure 1/8” x 1/8” x 2”
  • Prepare 4 pieces of Tourné potato with dimensions of ¾” diameter at middle, 2” long and 7 equal sides with flat ends
  • Peel and small dice one onion where the dice are ¼” square on their surface
  • Peel and segment one orange, Supremes only, no skin, seeds or pith.

Students will be scored on a 40-point system as follows:

  • 10 points for overall kitchen which includes: organization, sanitation, product handling
  • 5 points for julienne
  • 5 points for onion
  • 10 points for tourney
  • 10 points for orange

Pastry Competition Guidelines

Students are encouraged to submit an application for the Pastry Chef competition that includes a signature dessert that they are able to prepare exactly as submitted in a 90-minute final round. The dessert must be an original concept set forth by the student.

The top 12 student submissions will be selected to participate in the Pastry Chef Final Round. Students may enter more than 1 submission; however, only one of their submissions may be eligible for the finals.

The dessert should be of the style and level expected in an upscale restaurant and should include the following 5 basic elements for a plated dessert (some items may be represented more than once, i.e. chocolate cake is the main item, etc.):

  • a main item
  • a sauce
  • a cookie or crisp item
  • chocolate
  • and fruit

Students are required to submit:

  • One 4x6 color photo of the dessert emailed to shmca@monroecollege.edu with the student name and ABHSC in the subject line
  • The complete recipe for the dessert (ingredient list and procedure) along with the recipes for every component

Pastry Chef Final Round

Students will be required to prepare and present 2 plated portions of their dessert in the 90-minute window.