ANTIGO — One Antigo High School student will compete in a regional culinary arts competition this Friday, March 15.
Junior Kaitlyn Schreoder, a stalwart in the AHS Family Consumer Science program, will travel to Waukesha County Technical College for the cooking event, part of the 51st annual SkillsUSA Wisconsin State Leadership and Skills Conference.
SkillsUSA, a national workforce development organization, will hold competitions in a number of practical, mostly STEM-related vocations at Waukesha and other locations in the lead-up to its culminating event April 10 in Madison.
Schroeder’s event this Friday will judge contestants’ ability to prepare two entrees from scratch. Evaluators will score her work on criteria including but not limited to organization, safety, knife skills, technique, presentation and of course, taste.
Tracie Frisch, who has taught Schroeder in many culinary arts classes throughout the past three years, believes the senior will perform well.
“Sometimes students like her in my upper level classes get to pick what they want to make and they choose a recipe that I haven’t even seen. I have the products for them or the food for them, and then they know it better than me,” Frisch said. “So she has all the skill and all the knowledge that she needs. Maybe with not being in a culinary class right now she’s a little hesitant, but I know at home she still does these things. She’s going to do great. I’m excited to see what the next step is after this competition because I know she’s got the skills.”
While Schroeder competed with a partner at a SkillsUSA baking competition hosted at Antigo High School in the fall, she said venturing into this larger regional event alone is somewhat daunting.
“I guess I’m kind of nervous because it’s just me competing in the whole entire skills competition for our school,” she said. “So I’m kind of nervous, but I’m also kind of excited to see what challenges they throw at us I guess and what we have to do. I’ll have had experience with it most likely — Ms. Frisch has taught us everything we need to know pretty much.”
AHS’ Family Consumer Science program now includes four courses related to food preparation: Intro to Culinary, International Foods, Baking and Pastries and Advanced Culinary.
Schroeder has taken them all — more than once, in a way.
“My older sister Brianna is like my biggest role model, so I kind of always look up to her,” Schroeder said. “When she was in high school she would always take culinary classes and teach me how to cook and I would want to help her. Now she fell in love with baking — she’s doing a side business making cakes — and I help her with that.”
Frisch suggested that SkillsUSA, which is actually a club at the high school that she supervises, helps students build self-esteem.
“It’s not even just the cooking part that’s important — it’s being exposed to something new,” Frisch said. “You get to see students come out of their shells a little bit. They’re high school kids, so they haven’t done that many things, and with these events, they go out and experience a new situation and new people.”
Schroeder said that in traveling to different cities for the competitions filled with students from high schools around the state, this has indeed been the case for her.
“I’ve met so many new people since I joined SkillsUSA, and honestly, I love it. I’d never talked to so many people and seen so many people, and I get to know their different interests. I think it’s opened up my social life. It opened me up to talking to new people. I used to be so nervous to talk to new people, but since I’m there, I feel like I should make it worth being there and meet new people and new friends,” said Schroeder, who said she still messages students she met at the events from places like Colby and Bonduel High Schools. “They were really nice, and I’ll text them and I’ll be like, ‘Hey, are you coming to this competition?’ There’s so many schools that attend them.”
Frisch said SkillsUSA competitions like the one Schroeder will compete in — and the Family Consumer Science courses at Antigo High in general — are valuable to students.
“We really focus on school-to-work skills that students need to succeed after high school,” Schroeder said. “They’re transferable skills, so they have to be on time, they have to have their chefs coats on, put their phones away — all of those things go to any career…it even transfers over to being a good community member. How can you get involved? Maybe you’re going to help with something at your other place of employment or church or other things that you do in your life.”
Culinary Arts Competition winners will be announced at the closing ceremony of the State Leadership and Skills Conference on the evening of April 10 in Madison.
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