Culinary Team Competes in New York
By: Sydney DeVore '26
This summer, SOCES Seniors Ariana Martinez and Xime Silva were lucky enough to participate in a C-CAP culinary bootcamp. This bootcamp took place in New York and they were joined by high schoolers from across the country. Previously, Ariana and Xime had competed in the C-CAP competition here in Los Angeles. There were also competitions leading up to New York across the country in Arizona, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and more. They competed in a room full of around thirty Juniors and as a result of competing, they won the trip to New York.
While in New York, competitors had to show off their skills within the span of an hour. During this hour, they would have to make one cut salad, one omelet, and demonstrate their knife cuts. This part of the competition is considered prelims. The grade level of the competitor determines what is being competed for. Seniors fight for scholarships for colleges while Juniors get the opportunity to watch the second round of the competition as well as help out. The seniors who make it to the second round are the ones who made it through prelims. Those who finish the second round in the provided time are the ones that are given the scholarships.
In addition, every day, the head of the department would grade everyone's omelets and knife cuts. On the first day, Xime had the best omelet and by the last day, Ariana had the best omelet overall. Her omelet was graded with a perfect score and she had the only perfected omelet.
Ariana and Xime after passing prelims were given $1700 to pay for the trip. While in New York, everyone was able to work under the head chef for three days. Xime was beyond grateful for their time with the head chef saying, “He was an amazing chef. We got to work under him and he helped guide us through other dishes we made. We got to work on our own skills and try to improve”. Xime continued to describe how winning the scholarship was for just being there. The people who won the scholarship got a free stay in the dorms, classes with the head chef, and amazing meals every day.
One of the best parts of the trip to New York according to the two seniors was bonding with kids from other states who share their love for cooking. They were able to play cards, cook Mac and Cheese and popcorn in the Kitchen they had in their dorms, and socialize with one another. Another fun part of the competition was the raffle where competitors would turn in tickets and have the chance to win prizes. Ariana won a shirt and Xime won a phenomenal knife kit.
The two had many takeaways from this amazing experience. Xime states, “It really opened our eyes to what we could do because I know before, Ari wasn’t really big on leaving far from home. But now, Ariana is super interested in going to New York. New York has always been a dream of mine to go out there so it’s a huge possibility that we’re probably going to go back out there”. Ariana then intervenes saying “I know that if I even get a partial scholarship through C-CAP, I’m going to New York. It would be stupid for us not to.” Ariana and Xime are both hoping to take their culinary skills to a career level. The pair hope to open their own restaurants, and possibly even one together.
