Sandoval pursues his own dream
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 09:11 a.m., May 17, 2008
Updated 09:11 a.m., May 17, 2008
Emporian Aldo Sandoval did not want to be available to attend his high school graduation ceremonies this weekend, and he won’t be.
Aldo, the son of Eva and Eduardo Sandoval, knew when he left for the Best Teen Chef competition last month in Dallas that if he won, he would be in Las Vegas on May 18 for the national Best Teen Chef contest. Sandoval had joked then about not wanting to be available for graduation.
In Dallas, he defeated 15 other teenagers who had been chosen for the contest, and came home with the Best Teen Chef title, a 410,000 tuition scholarship to the Arts Institutes Culinary Arts school, and the right to compete in Las Vegas for a $50,000 tuition scholarship and being an Intern for the Day in the Food Network Kitchens, in addition to other benefits and smaller prize items.
The Food Network also plans to run a brief feature on the competition some time in June, according to Tracie Lesser of the international Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes in Chicago.
“We do not have the exact dates at this time, so we are unable to provide this information,” Lesser said.
Calls to The Food Network were not returned.
Saldoval flew out to Las Vegas early Friday morning, after battling a bad cold and stomach flu that kept him out of classes on Thursday, according to Marie Malone, his culinary arts instructor at the Flint Hills Technical College.
He was to go to the competition at 6 a.m. today to compete against 31 other teen chefs, all of whom will be given identical recipes, equipment, and foodstuffs to create a mise en place — pre-measuring of all foods and spices needed and laying them out in the order of use — and prepare and present the completed dishes in a set amount of time.
In addition to the quality of the food, judging in the past has relied heavily on knife skills and creativity in artistic presentation.
Malone said she had told Aldo not to be nervous.
“I told him, ‘Just do what you did in Dallas and don’t worry about it,’” she said. “I told him, ‘Aldo, regardless, you’ve done something no one else in Emporia’s ever done.’”