Emporia’s teen chef is preparing for another competition. First, though, he’ll come home this weekend, with hopes of cooking for area residents who want help with holiday parties and meals.
Aldo Sandoval, the son of Eva and Eduardo Sandoval of Emporia, has been studying at the Culinary School of The Art Institutes in Dallas.
He won a $10,000 to the school with a first-place finish in the Best Teen Chef competition in April in Dallas. He followed up with a second-place finish and a $40,000 scholarship at the national finals of the contests held in May in Las Vegas.
Sandoval, then a student of Marie Malone’s culinary arts classes at Flint Hills technical College, cooked hundreds of omelets for the public to earn money to go to the competitions.
The scholarships he won have been exceptionally helpful, he said, but they cover only two years of the full three-year degree program. Sandoval wants to complete the course, instead of going two years for an associate’s degree.
His class schedule this fall, with its mixture of daytime and evening classes, limited his ability to get a job to help him buy books and pay for an apartment.
In January, his classes will be on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, with four days left over to work a part-time job.
Until then, Sandoval wants to use his skills and education to cook breakfasts, lunches, dinners and hors d’oeuvres for area residents while he is in Emporia on holiday break.
He also would prepare food in advance that hosts could pop in the oven themselves, at their own convenience.
Sandoval has progessed up the culinary ladder in the short time he’s been in Dallas.
For the Las Vegas competition, he’d prepared braciole Calabresi, peperonata and orechietti con carciofl (stuffed pork rolls, sauteed peppers with capers and orecchiette pasta with artichokes).
For the upcoming Stephen Pyles Culinary Scholarship competition on Feb. 28 and March 1, he will prepare a three-course dinner using what he calls “high-end” foods: lamb, quail and oysters.
The scholarship is worth $15,000.
“If you win, you get to go to Los Angeles and get your name out to the celebrity chefs,” said Sandoval, who is eyeing the possibility of becoming a personal chef rather than one who works in a restaurant.
People who want more information about Sandoval’s availability to cook for them during the holiday break may call him at (620) 757-5624.