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Culinary program at AOL sets table for success
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By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald
Academy of Our Lady’s (AOL) five-member culinary team captured first place for “best business operations” in the Louisiana Restaurant Association’s annual ProStart Invitational March 30, which pitted teams from across the state against each other in envisioning, designing and running a mythical new restaurant.
The AOL senior culinary team, led by teacher/chef Madeline Carpenter, won “best operations” against 24 teams statewide in the management section of the competition at the New Orleans Convention Center.
The five members of the culinary team were Elaine Lesnak, Sarah Walters, Blair Chiquet, Arianne Johnson and Haylee Gros.
The competition required teams to design a restaurant and business plan within a hypothetical city using demographics and their desired target markets. The AOL students created a dish from scratch that would appear on their menu – a twist on a New England-style traditional lobster roll with Creole flavors and local shrimp.
In order to prepare for the competition, the students used knowledge gained in junior and senior years of the ProStart class. They brainstormed and collaborated to create a food truck focusing on fish and shellfish, including an oyster shucker window.
The students also designed the theme, concept, layout and menu of their restaurant, created a marketing plan, budgeted for the daily operations and costs of running the business and took part in a critical-thinking, problem-solving exercise that posed “what if” scenarios for the restaurant.
The AOL team excelled at the business end: pitching how the business would be run most efficiently and effectively in regards to staffing, food safety, problem solving and keeping costs and profits in order.
AOL first adopted its Pro-Start culinary program with the Louisiana Restaurant Association in 2011. Over the years, students have won overall competitions and competed nationally in 2017. More than 30 students have graduated with all requirements for a culinary major.
AOL also offers academic majors in health care (students take the state test and graduate with a certified nursing assistant’s license), law, fine arts and STEM. Health care is the academic major with the largest participation, with hundreds of graduates.
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