The Montana State University hospitality management and Gallatin College MSU culinary arts programs, in partnership with the Montana Restaurant Association Education Foundation, will host a culinary competition for high school students on March 8.

The 2019 Montana ProStart Invitational will be held on MSU’s campus from 8 a.m. until 2:50 p.m., and the awards ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. The community is welcome to attend and observe the competition. 

ProStart is an industry-backed culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students. The program has grown over the past year and there are 25 Montana high schools with more than 2,000 students involved, according to ProStart. In Friday’s competition, students from 11 high schools from across the state will participate.

The event will feature two competitions: management and culinary. In the management competition, teams of two to five students develop a restaurant concept, complete with a menu, recipes, floor plan, staffing plan and marketing strategy. They answer questions from judges who act as potential investors. For the culinary competition, teams of two to five students develop a three-course menu and prepare two meals in an hour with only two butane burners. Industry leaders evaluate them on food safety, knife skills, taste, presentation, teamwork and food costs.

Students and faculty members from both MSU’s hospitality management program, which is based in the College of Health and Human Development, and Gallatin College MSU’s associate of applied science in culinary arts program will volunteer and assist in planning and hosting the competition. 

Below is a schedule of the day’s events:

Friday, March 8

• 7:45 a.m.: First group of culinary teams report and culinary competition begins in the Hannon Culinary Lab. 

• 8:45 a.m.: First group of management teams report and management competition begins in Stand Union Building Room 235.

• 1 p.m.: Second group of management teams report and management competition begins in SUB 235.

• 2:40 p.m.: Management competition ends. 

• 2:50 p.m.: Culinary competition ends.

• 3:30 p.m.: Awards ceremony in Hannon Hall.

To learn more about the Montana ProStart Invitational, please contact Roth Jordan from the Montana Restaurant Association at roth@montanaaleworks.com or Stephanie Gray, program development manager at Gallatin College, at 406-994-5256 or at Stephanie.gray2@montana.edu.