Sweet meet: CB Tech students show their kitchen expertise
Daylen Callahan ices his cake during the SkillsUSA regional commercial baking contest held at CB Tech on Feb. 11.
Rebecca Pettingill/Columbia Basin Herald
Klair Reed moves her cookies to the sheet that she will use for presentation to the judges.
The freshly baked rolls made by one competitor at the SkillsUSA regional commercial baking contest held at CB Tech on Feb. 11.
Once the time was up, competitors in the SkillsUSA regional commercial baking contest placed their items on trays for judges to sample.
CB Tech student Isabel Duran rolls out the dough for her pie crust during Friday’s SkillsUSA regional commercial baking contest.
From left to right, Klair Reed, Michelle Miranda and Vanessa Rivera. The three will move on to the SkillsUSA state competition if it is held this year.
MOSES LAKE — Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center (CB Tech) saw nine bakers compete in the SkillsUSA regional commercial baking contest on Friday.
Students of CB Tech and Moses Lake High School were given the opportunity to showcase their baking skills through five pre-selected baked items. Entries included blueberry muffins, dinner rolls, chocolate chip cookies, an apple pie and decorating an 8-inch birthday cake.
Some dishes, such as the dinner rolls, were made completely from scratch, while others, like the birthday cake, had parts pre-made for them. The cake and frosting were prepped ahead of time, requiring competitors to assemble and decorate the cake.
The competitors started the day at 8:30 a.m. with a test and then had three hours, from 9 a.m. to noon, to complete the five baked items.
Chef Kathleen Claymore, culinary arts instructor at Moses Lake High School, and Chef Nathan Bathurst, culinary instructor at CB Tech, said that the competition is for students not only to showcase their ability to follow a recipe (which they were provided for the five items in this competition), but to also replicate the items to be nearly identical as many would need to in a commercial baking company.
Bathurst noted that this was the first time the yearly regional competition was held in two years because COVID-19 restrictions had gotten in the way. He also said only one of the nine competitors had participated in this competition before, the rest were new to the challenge.
The competition had three judges, all local to Moses Lake. Two were from Michael’s Market and Bistro and one was from Brookdale Hearthstone Moses Lake.
Once time was up, competitors placed their baked goods on trays and set them in a conference room for the judges to sample and score. The room was filled with the sweet smell of freshly baked goodies.
An audible sigh of relief could be heard from the competitors as they cleaned up after the competition. They were happy to finally be done with the contest. Time management seemed to be the biggest stressor for many of the students.
CB Tech student Isabel Duran said she was most worried about time management during the competition.
“I felt like I was going super slow and everyone was getting this and this and everything was getting done and I felt so lost,” Duran said.
Duran said she wants to own her own cafe and bakery one day.
Bryan Ledezma-Soto of CB Tech said he felt that the hardest part was time management, to decide what order to complete the items without wasting any time. He said he enjoys baking because he wants to bring people happiness through his food.
Out of the nine competitors, only the top three would advance to the state competition. The top three competitors were Klair Reed of CB Tech, Michelle Miranda of CB Tech and Vanessa Rivera of Moses Lake High School.
Claymore and Bathurst said it remains unclear whether the state competition will be held because of possible COVID-19 restrictions or challenges.
Rebecca Pettingill can be reached via email at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.
