Vincent DeFinis Scholarship winners Saudly Delphin of Ventnor and Isabella Burke of Ocean City.
MAYS LANDING – Atlantic Cape Community College’s Academy of Culinary Arts program awarded two scholarships to freshmen Culinary Arts major Saudly Delphin and Baking and Pastry major Isabella Burke during the Vincent DeFinis Restaurant Gala Scholarship cooking competition held Oct. 13 at the Mays Landing campus.
The annual competition pitted six student finalists in the culinary, and baking and pastry categories. Faculty members selected six finalists – Anthony Spero, Tiarah Williams and Delphin, while the baking and pastry finalists were Grace Carpenter, Nicole Taylor and Burke.
This year’s recipe called for the creation of a hot chowder by the hot food students and a quick bread product from the baking and pastry students.
Delphin, a freshman from Ventnor, created a Haitian-inspired joumou pumpkin chowder served on a Caribbean harvest board and garnished with fried mango, hibiscus, thyme, rosemary and bone marrow butter.
“This scholarship means the world to me and it will definitely give me a head start in my future. It will take off so much pressure that I have been putting on myself to, not only, succeed, but to be better,” Delphin said. “I believe that thanks to this opportunity today that I will be a better person and a better cook.”
Burke, a freshman from Ocean City, created an elote street corn-inspired cornbread complete with fresh ingredients that wowed the judges.
“I wanted to create something simple. This is a testament to what I can do so far even though we are only a few weeks into this program,” Burke said. “The money is a relief. I stepped way out of my comfort zone and it really did pay off.”
The scholarships awarded will cover the winning students’ tuition and fees for their sophomore year of studies within the Academy of Culinary Arts program.
The finalists were judged on taste, texture, portion size, presentation, sanitation, utilization of the ingredients, organization and culinary technique. Chef Educator Ruth LaTorre judged the hot food kitchen finalists while Chef Educator Linda Wohlman judged the baking and pastry kitchen. The task of discerning whose creations and techniques were the best of the best fell to tasting judges retired ACA Director, Chef Bruce Johns; former ACA Adjunct Instructor, Chef Jon Davies; and Chef Michael Brennan, owner of Cardinal Restaurant in Atlantic City.
Each year, nearly $250,000 is raised for culinary and hospitality scholarships, such as the Vincent DeFinis scholarship, at the Annual Atlantic Cape Community College Restaurant Gala, the culinary program’s largest fundraising event. DeFinis began in the hotel industry in 1932 and worked in many food and beverage departments of service under various Ritz-Carlton Hotel System European chefs. DeFinis also served in the Air Force as food supervisor with the Eighth Air Force Service Command during World War II. DeFinis passed away in 2007.
Visit atlantic.edu/aca for more information on the Academy of Culinary Arts program.
