Meadowcreek Students Head to National Culinary Competition


What’s for dinner? Beef tenderloin kebabs with maple coriander ketchup and chipotle mashed potatoes. Oh, and cappuccino mouse served in a chocolate cups for dessert. 

For three Meadowcreek High School students, that’s been the almost nightly menu: The undefeated culinary team is practicing for a national cooking competition that could win them $80,000 in scholarship money to use at any school they choose.

Tyler Rivera, Nicholas Patma and Vincent Thompkins are hungry for a win. After prevailing in a regional then state championship, they head to Anaheim, California to represent Georgia in the national FCCLA competition on July 9.

Part of the team’s inspiration comes  from their mentor, Richard Hurst, the executive chef at Lenbrook Retirement Community in Buckhead. “He’s just a wonderful, intelligent man,” says Rivera, the team captain.

Rivera, a rising senior, is the youngest member of the trio—but he’s no stranger to the pressure of the clock and the kitchen.  At his first competition in 10th grade, he was the youngest ever to participate.

He says he’s already collected 7 or 8 scholarships from top culinary schools in the U.S., like the Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales. But he’s set his sights further afield. He’d like to attend the original Le Cordon Bleu in France then open his own restaurant one day.

Each of the students work together in the kitchen to create the meal—and they have a way of finishing each other’s sentences that shows they’ve spent plenty of time as a team. 

“Without one of us, it would all be a mess,” said Thompkins.

But each member has his own culinary flair at home, too. Rivera whips up chicken stuffed with plantains and bacon for his family; Patma is skilled with sushi; Thompkins likes to cook Italian.

Teacher Deborah Grant, who will be accompanying the students to California, explains that chefs create the menus for the competitions that would be used in a professional kitchen. In the other levels of competition, the teams were given three menus to practice, with won chosen on the big day. This time there’s only one, so there’s more certainty. And there’s a lot beef kebabs.

Rivera says that he uses music to keep his team calm and focused, in the kitchen and before a competition. “I tell them, ‘Think of your feet. Keep your mind open.’” 

So are they nervous? “A little,” they say in unison, all smiles.   

No matter what happens on game day, they’re going to Disneyland afterward. Literally–they’ll be California after all. 

By Laura Sullivan