Texas Culinary Students - We Challenge You!

We are now accepting applications for the 11th Annual Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship Cook-Off which will take place on Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3 at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin.

THE CHALLENGE:

Open to all currently enrolled culinary students throughout Texas, the scholarship challenges students to create a unique three-course meal utilizing a predetermined ‘basket of food’ containing many Texas food products. The competition consists of two phases:

• Phase One is the application phase, whereby menus and application packets are submitted. Entries are then blindly evaluated by an expert panel of The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas judges. Ten participants are blindly selected and sent to Chef Pyles for final evaluation.  Chef Pyles then blindly selects the final three contestants.
• Phase Two consists of the actual cook-off event whereby three finalists will be competing for two days by cooking and serving their menus to a panel of culinary experts (through a blind tasting). 

THE REWARD:

In addition to capturing the glory of being the 2011 Stephan Pyles Scholarship winner, the grand prize is a $15,000.00 scholarship made payable to the winner’s school. The winner also have the opportunity to travel with Chef Pyles to a celebrity chef fundraising event in Los Angeles and the opportunity to present a course at the Stephan Pyles Annual Celebrity Chef Dinner & Live Wine Auction in November in Dallas.

The two remaining finalists will each receive $1,000.00 scholarships made payable to their respective schools.

Download an application here. The deadline to submit your application is 5pm on Friday, February 11, 2011.

About the Scholarship:

Named for Texas culinary legend Chef Stephan Pyles, known as one of the founding fathers of Southwestern cuisine, the Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship is a tribute to his remarkable contribution to the culinary arts in Texas. This scholarship is one of the many ways in which The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas fulfills its mission of providing education and research in the culinary and viticulture arts.

This scholarship challenge fosters the drive, passion and imagination in student chefs, thus furthering Texas’ great culinary legacy. It is challenging, demanding and requires skill, imagination and drive. The competition is rotated between culinary schools throughout the state and is judged by a number of Texas chefs and culinary experts each year, including Chef Pyles.

GOOD LUCK!