Utah’s Teen Chefs Are Star of TV Series
Utah’s teen chefs are today’s TV stars on a locally produced series, “Utah ProStart Teen Chef Masters.” We’re now about eight weeks into the reality cooking show, which airs on Saturday, 9 a.m. on KSTU Fox 13. But even if you haven’t been tuning in from the beginning, it would still be fun to watch.
The show started out with 12 contestants. The teen chef winner gets a four-year-scholarship to Johnson & Wales University’s culinary program. When I was the Deseret News’ food editor, I was able to hone my own cooking skills with a day at Johnson & Wales’ Charlotte, N.C. campus. The culinary school is a prestigious, and expensive program.
For me, an interesting component is seeing some of Utah’s top players in the food world. As the host, Matt Caputo of Tony Caputo’s Market & Deli lends an air of professionalism without getting over-dramatic. Many people remember Viet Pham as the guy who beat Bobby Flay on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America.” He also been a finalist on FN’s “Extreme Chef,” and “The Next Food Network Star.” Logen Crew was in ProStart as a teen and took third place in national competition. He garnered many accolades as the executive chef of Fresco Italian Café and is now executive chef of Current Fish & Oyster, both in Salt Lake City. Briar Handly won awards as the executive chef of Talisker on Main and now owns Handle, both in Park City. The mentor chefs have a stake in the competition, as the chef whose student wins gets a trip to France.
Each week there’s a guest judge, such as Amber Billingsley, one of Utah’s top pasty chefs, or Peter Hodgson, now chef at the University of Utah. Peter, an Aussie, and I go way back. Back in 2000, I met Peter when he was involved in opening Matilda’s, an Australian restaurant with the Larry H. Miller Group.
There’s also a “You Be The Judge” component where viewers can visit the mentor chefs’ restaurants to sample the dishes made in each week’s challenge and decide which of the dishes was best. Handly’s dish will be available at his restaurant Handle, Crew’s dishes can be ordered at Current and Pham’s dishes will be available at Naked Fish Bistro in Salt Lake City. (Pham is in the process of opening his latest restaurant concept Ember & Ash.) So often, viewers wish they could taste the beautiful food served on cooking TV shows. Here’s their chance.
Utah’s food products are also getting some of the spotlight, as the ingredients for the competition are furnished by Utah’s Own. It’s impressive to see the fabulous cheeses, chocolate, produce, and other great foods produced here in Utah.
If there’s one quibble it’s that when you’re packing everything in to 22 minutes, there’s not a lot of time to see much of what the chefs teach the students, or the student interactions with each other. But, then again, the quick pace keeps the show from dragging.
The new series is the brainchild of Katy Sine of the Utah Restaurant Association, who also spent 15 years working in the film industry. The goal is to highlight the URA’s ProStart program, where high school students get culinary training with an eye to a career in the restaurant industry.
In October, I did an interview by email with Katy for my Standard-Examiner column.
How many episodes are planned for the series? Are they already filmed? Utah ProStart Teen Chef Masters is a proper series including 13 episodes. The series was filmed this summer at a soundstage in downtown Salt Lake City.
What are the full names and hometowns of the contestants (as I mentioned, I’m especially interested in the northern Utah students). Are they allowed to be interviewed by the media while the series is still running? The first episode of the season was “Audition Day” and we had many more kids audition than what was shown, but not all the kids that were featured last week made the competition. Sam Anderson and Alex Gilchrist were on “Audition Day” and are from Roy, and Roy High School’s ProStart Program and Daniel Funk who also appeared in “Audition Day” is from Clinton and Syracuse High School’s ProStart Program. The teens can be interviewed if someone from production is present.
As the producer and director of the series, how are you feeling so far about the results? What was your goal for the show? I am thrilled with the results of the show. This series has been a nine year journey and its beyond exciting to see it come to fruition. We premiered at #1 in the rankings for our time slot with very solid numbers for Saturday morning. With so much unsavory entertainment on television I’m really proud to be involved in a program that inspires young people to live their dreams and then guides them to be able to practically implement those dreams through the Utah Restaurant Association’s ProStart Program. Instead of watching someone do something that feels too big or impossible, we are helping give these teens a roadmap. If you want to be a chef, if you want to learn skills and training, you really can and we’re showing you how.
I’ve worked in the film industry for 15 years and am the founder of the Motion Picture Association of Utah and I’ve worked in the Restaurant industry as well and have a serious love for both. It was an honor to be able to combine these two passions and I wanted desperately to do both justice. I wanted Teen Chef Masters to look as extraordinary as its content is. The Utah ProStart Program is incredible and has been changing teens lives for over 20 years. Logen Crew, one of our Mentor Chefs graduated from ProStart and he’s an example of many others just like him. I hope it inspires people to stoke their passion for food and educates them as to how to understand ingredients. On next week’s show we introduce our “You Be The Judge” engagement where our viewers can go to the restaurants of the Mentor Chefs and taste the dishes they saw prepared. I also hope it creates and engages the community of food enthusiasts and introduces non food enthusiasts to new restaurants, flavors and experiences. I’ll be happy if the show looks as good as the food tastes.
Was it a challenge to work with teens who are not experienced in front of a camera? No one except for Viet Pham had camera experience. Therefore, we took a very different technical approach to our filming strategy. We had an incredible camera team that we choreographed around the action of the competition and not the other way around (which is unusual). This allowed for a real freedom for these kids to be themselves and not act or have things staged which I think translates very well visually. The competitors had confidence in their cooking experience because they were required to have a certain level of food education to audition. We made sure to create a safe environment for the teens and that they new the rules of the competition and rules of filming. These teens are amazing and remarkably talented so they took direction very well. Ultimately, we stayed true to the competition because that was what was most important.The prize at the end of 13-episodes is a life changing 4-year scholarship to Johnson & Wales for the students and a trip to France for the our winning Mentor Chef.
How many students came to the auditions held earlier in the year? How did you choose the competitors? We had a ton of students from around the state turn out for auditions this summer. The students prepared an amuse bouche for our Mentor Chefs and they scored the teens based on cooking skill, presentation, taste, use of ingredients, etc. And then they went through their notes and scores and decided who they wanted. Of course production had a say also but we really maintained the integrity of the spirit of the ProStart Program, the Utah Restaurant Association, the competition, the chefs, the students and the prizes.
How did you choose the mentor chefs? Given how busy many chefs are, was it difficult to get them on board? We wanted to highlight our state and the incredible chefs and products we have here. Utah is incredible and we wanted represent our restaurant industry. We knew we needed a mix homegrown extremely talent as well as those who are helping to build on our amazing infrastructure here. Some of these chefs have been attached to this project for the past four years as we were bringing it to fruition. Matt, Briar, Logen, and Viet were wonderful with their schedules and incredible with the teens. The production worked around their schedules and started early each morning. Some of these teens are now working with these chefs in their restaurants which is exactly what the ProStart Program does. We’ve been able to connect industry and students to create an incredible synergy that you see both on screen and off screen. The chef’s gave their hearts and souls and it really shows. I’m so proud of them, the teens, the crew, our brilliant host, the Utah Restaurant Association, the ProStart program, our sponsors and everyone involved in this production. I am incredibly grateful to them and to have been a part of it all.
For more info about the show or the Utah Restaurant Association, check www.UtahDineOut.com or teenchefmasters.com.