Room 337 transformed into a student-run food truck festival and competition last week as teachers sampled dishes, ranging from homemade Runzas to comfort food and desserts, which served as the final project for ProStart II, the second course in the school’s two-year culinary arts and restaurant management program. Staff members judged menus, tasted food and ranked their favorite meals while students played the role of food-truck operators.
Over the course of the assignment, Prostart II students designed their own original food truck concepts, built out full menus, tested their recipes and ultimately prepared one food item for a group of staff judges. Family consumer science teacher Jennifer Boyum wanted the project to cover everything they’ve learned.
“I look for them to demonstrate their marketing strategies, knowledge of cooking methods, safety and sanitation skills, finding quality recipes, editing recipes if needed, et cetera,” she said. “This was the perfect setup to let them share their skills.”
Students were given the room to make the project their own.
“I was so excited to see the creativity students had,” Boyum said. “A lot of them knew exactly what they wanted to create and already had an idea for their trucks.”
That freedom showed in the finished products. Senior Korbin Stastny came out on top in this year’s “Food Truck Wars,” serving up flank steak tacos and hot queso from his truck, “Fire in the Shell.” Stastny’s idea came with a distinct identity, built around bold flavors, with the branding to match.
“My whole concept was supposed to be like a spicy food truck with lots of seasoning,” he said. “I made a poster with lots of fire and just overall spiciness all over it. I was proud of it.”
Students had the opportunity to go through a test run the week prior, spending the first two days prepping their food, the third day cooking it and the rest of the week making any changes to their recipes after trying it themselves.
“The prep week was good because it helped me figure out my time management and what I needed to change with the food,” Stastny said. “The marinade I made for my steak really wasn’t that great the first time. Fixing that up, that definitely helped out.”
After visiting everyone’s trucks, judges were allowed to rank the food trucks 1-6 based on creativity and taste. Judges also gave feedback on students’ dishes through a Google Form. After reading the responses, students have already thought of ways to improve their food.
“The sauce I made was great,” Stastny said. “It’s just people didn’t like how spicy it was, and some people loved how spicy it was. I just need to add a mild, a medium, a hot option, so I can come up with a sauce everyone can love.”
The judges, who are educators themselves, saw the project as a useful learning experience for the students involved.
“Projects like this are incredibly valuable because they take the things that you’re learning and you get to take them out for a spin and put your own take on them,” HAL teacher Dawn Nizzi said. “You apply what you’ve learned. It isn’t just some theory. Those are the things that stick with students. Those are the things they talk about years later.”
Boyum had similar thoughts.
“I hope they see the work that goes into creating a menu, the effort it takes to develop the concept and test recipes and be proud of what they created,” she said.