“It’s really exciting because I know we’ve worked hard. We’ve been getting up really early to do it, and I feel happy that it’s all paid off to this.”
Students from Francis Tuttle Technology Center claimed the top two spots in the culinary division at the 2026 Ben E. Keith Oklahoma ProStart Student Invitational, with the PM high school team earning first place and the AM team finishing second. The annual event was held Feb. 26 on Francis Tuttle’s Rockwell Campus.
Culinary teams had just 60 minutes to prepare a three-course meal using only two butane burners and without access to running water or electricity. In addition to taste, competitors were judged based on technical skill, teamwork, food safety, and sanitation process.
The championship team included Sophia Arnold (Edmond North High School senior), Abby Harris (Deer Creek High School junior), Gabriella Kipf (Epic Charter Schools senior), Keira Stallings (Edmond North High School senior), and Victoria Yang (Deer Creek High School senior). The team will represent Oklahoma at the 2026 National ProStart Invitational in Baltimore in April, marking the second straight appearance for Arnold, Stallings, and Yang.
The team’s menu featured a chicken ballotine entree, a shrimp and corn cake appetizer, and a ruby chocolate mousse dessert. Each dish was developed through extensive trial and error to perfect flavor combinations.
ProStart is unique from other competitions Francis Tuttle students participate in because it’s a team event instead of an individual one. Anna Banda, Francis Tuttle Culinary instructor, said the team aspect provides “a snapshot of the culinary industry because you’re never alone in the kitchen.”
“You can’t do it by yourself,” Banda said. “There has to be communication. There has to be teamwork. There has to be setting aside differences. There has to be coming when you don’t feel like it, and the teams did all those things. They checked all those boxes, and their hard work really paid off.”
ProStart also provides students with exposure to industry professionals who serve as mentors and judges. In addition to Banda’s coaching, students were mentored by Jessie Gomez, a former Francis Tuttle student who now works as an executive sous chef at Birdies by Chef Kevin Lee and hosts a pop-up concept.
Competitions like ProStart require planning and practice hours outside of the regular Francis Tuttle classes, and students often practiced before school in the mornings and on Saturdays. For Yang, those early mornings and practices were worth it.
“It’s really exciting because I know we’ve worked hard,” Yang said. “We’ve been getting up really early to do it, and I feel happy that it’s all paid off to this. It was a really fun experience. I feel like we definitely had our moments of struggling, but we had a lot of fun doing it together.”
Each year, Banda encourages students to capture a visual record of their progress as they prepare for the competition.
“When they have an idea or concept that they have in their heads, the first time you see it on a plate, it’s like OK, we have a lot of work to do before we can make it to this day and definitely make it to first place,” Banda shared. “But I always remind them to look at that plate. I always have them take a picture of that first plate that first day so they can see how far they’ve come. A lot of times they don’t think it’s possible.”
Seeing this growth and improvement was a highlight for Arnold.
“My favorite part was seeing how our plates grew,” Arnold said. “You can see at the beginning how they looked, then at the end how much we grew and how much effort we put in to make them 110%.”