Willamette chefs capture state title.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Four young chefs from Willamette High School captured first place Saturday in a statewide culinary arts competition in Portland.

Hayley Farr, Jonathan Gunson, Kendy Kinports and Patricia Taft, all juniors, bested teams from 28 other Oregon high schools in the fourth annual competition sponsored by the Oregon Restaurant Education Foundation.

They won a silver traveling trophy and an expense-paid trip to Orlando, Fla., to compete April 24-28 as Oregon's representatives in the national culinary competition.

Taft High School of Lincoln City - the winner of both state and national competitions in 2002 and the state winner last year - finished second to Willamette.

The culinary competition is divided into two areas. Willamette took first in the knowledge bowl competition and fifth in the cooking demonstration, but had a combined score better than the other 28 teams.

Martha Humphreys teaches the hospitality and tourism certificate of advanced mastery class at Willamette High School using the restaurant foundation's ProStart curriculum. Connie Kulick is the mentor chef.

For its cooking demonstration, the Willamette team had one hour in which to prepare:

A salad plate of mixed spring greens with an orange poppy seed vinaigrette accompanied by panko-crusted crab cakes with a Thai curry sauce;

A main course of lightly smoked pork tenderloin with an herbed peppercorn crust served with apricot jalapeno mustard sauce;

Side dishes of mashed sweet potatoes, deep-fried buttermilk onion rings, and herbed green beans served in yellow squash rings garnished with carrots carved into flowers; and

A dessert of lemon mousse in chocolate cups with fresh blueberries and blueberry coulis.