The Emporia Gazette

September 6, 2008

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Emporian Aldo Sandoval will start classes on July 14 with a full-ride scholarship at the International Culinary Schools of The Art Institutes in Dallas, Texas.

He won the scholarship, which includes room and board, with a second-place finish on Saturday at the Institute’s Best Teen Chef in America competition in Las Vegas. Aldo secured a place in the national contest by winning the Best Teen Chef competition in April in Dallas. The latter contest brought a $10,000 scholarship; the finish in Las Vegas added another $40,000 scholarship.

“My dad told me it’s a dream come true because now can we pay for that,” Aldo said. “So in total I got $50,000. I’m excited to go and I’m ready.”

First, though, he had to attend his high school graduation, which he had not expected to be possible. The Sandoval family pulled into their driveway in Emporia only minutes before 3 p.m., when the ceremony was scheduled to start.

They rushed to W.L. White Auditorium and he sprinted inside.

“I was late, but that was ok,” he said.

By Sunday evening, Aldo was only beginning to come down from the emotional high of the weekend. It had been an exciting time from start to finish and, while he’d had opportunities to sleep, both in Las Vegas and on the plane ride home, his mind wouldn’t stop racing.

“I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I still haven’t slept from seven in the morning yesterday. I am dying,” he said, laughing at his happy predicament.

Aldo said he went to Las Vegas with some trepidation. If he did well, he’d have the means to reach his career goals; if he didn’t, he would need to find another way to finance his schooling.

Marie Malone, his culinary arts teacher at Flint Hills Technical College, had reassured him that he’d already done well by winning in Dallas and that no matter what happened in Las Vegas, he should be proud of his accomplishments. Although he has been “experimenting” in cooking since sixth grade, his only formal training had been at FHTC in its culinary arts program, which was new this school year.

“I told him, ‘You’re going to be up against kids that worked with chefs,” and I said, ‘Honey, all you’ve had is an old home ec teacher, so they started out with an advantage,’” Malone said.

By the time he got to Las Vegas, he wasn’t so nervous. He and the other contestants attended a reception on Friday, and familiarized themselves with the kitchens and equipment.

“Then Saturday was the cooking, which went pretty good,” he said. “I was not that nervous, I thought I did okay.”

All of the young chefs prepared the same Italian dishes: Braciole Calabresi, Peperonata, and Orechietti con Carciofl, which translate respectively to stuffed pork rolls, sautéed peppers with capers and orecchiette pasta with artichokes.

Each had been given the recipes when they won their regional best-chef competitions, so they could practice prior to the competition.

“Actually, I did that for my prom date,” he remarked, adding that the pasta dish had become a favorite with his mother. He was ready to cook for the judges.

He finished the two-hour competition about 11:15 a.m. and had to wait for the others who had been scheduled in after him.

In the interim, he heard a critique of his entries.

“We got to spend five minutes with master chefs. That was an honor,” he said. “They told me what was good and what was bad.”

He needed to be a little more organized with his food and, while his knife skills already are quite good, they could be improved. They also had wanted him to cut open the stuffed pork so they could get a look at the inside.

“Chef told me I cooked very interesting, and then he told me the food was a little spicy, but it was okay and they told me my portion size was perfect,” Aldo said.

That was good, because portion size caused problems for most of the contestants.

Some contestants also hadn’t held to the Italian theme of the food, making their creative presentations of the food inappropriate.

“French food is more decorated,” Aldo explained. “Italian food is served on the plate, like family-style.”

But, though the judge had told him his seasonings were good and everything was flavorful, he said the tension began to rise as the 4 o’clock announcement approached.

“After it all was done, the nerves came really bad,” Aldo said of the time between cooking and the awards ceremony.

Each contestant received a piece of crystal inscribed with his or her name and, as each was called to the front to receive it, Aldo initially thought that he was receiving a consolation prize.

Later, as the names of the finalists were ready to be counted down, he realized he remained in the running for the top prize.

“Second place!” he said of his reaction to hearing his name. “Yes, I made it!”

The first-place winner was Jonathan Miller of Savannah, Ga., who received the same tuition-paid scholarship plus a trip to New York for a one-day tour of the Food Network kitchens, an assortment of cookbooks and other prizes.

First place would have been great, Aldo said, but second place, with all its tuition money, is a great boon, and being in the top three is an honor in itself.

“I’m the second-best teen chef in America, so that’s good,” Aldo said.

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