Craft Named Best Chef
by Ashlyn Doerr
May 01, 2008
While most of Pierce High’s students were dancing the night away at Prom last Saturday, April 12, Tony Craft, a senior, was competing in the Best Teen Chef of America contest at the Culinary Art Institute in Denver, Colorado. Craft came home with a first-place medal and a $3,000 scholarship.
Craft was the only Nebraska student in the contest, but he competed against 13 other students from all over the country. Each competitor had to fill out an application to enter and be selected for the contest.
Each student was given four recipes to make and the month before the contest to perfect them. Craft said he “practiced many times a day for that month.”
The competition consisted of two segments. The first one was a 30 minute segment of cutting techniques, and the other was cooking the recipes, which were breaded chicken, rice pilaf, sauteed broccoli, and shrimp cocktail.
Needless to say, Craft had a good time, and all of his hard work and dedication paid off. He said, “I highly recommend this competition to anyone who enjoys culinary cooking.” His career goal is to be a chef.
Craft will go to Las Vegas on Saturday, May 17 to compete against 32 other students in the national competition. He is the son of Mark and Susan Craft of Hadar.
