Shepard seniors take top prize at Moraine Valley culinary competition

When you are hungry, it may be a good idea to pay a visit to Shepard High School when the culinary class is in session.

The culinary team at Shepard has quite the track record.

For the third straight year, and fifth time in 10 years, Shepard culinary students won the Moraine Area Career System Regional Culinary Competition April 16 at Moraine Valley Community College.

Shepard competed against the eight other area public high schools and again came out on top.

Seniors Jan Jablonski, Karolina Kisielewski and Keith Moser each prepared one part of the meal.

Jablonski made the entrée, Kisielewski the dessert and Moser the salad.

Culinary arts instructor Dan Solski, 44, of Mokena, said he knew those three had what it takes.

“I was very confident. Their skills are some of the best I’ve ever had. The way they interact, the teamwork,” Solski said.

Each team in the competition made a cheesecake for dessert, but could embellish in their own way.

Recipes for salads and entrees were up to each team. But the entrée had to include chicken.

The salad had mescaline and endive lettuce — “it’s like a spring mix,” Solski said — with red wine poached apples, apple cider vinaigrette, chunks of bleu cheese and candied walnuts.

The entrée was potato gnocchi with roasted carrots, shredded chicken and a carbonara sauce.

“We brainstormed together and came up with a couple  ideas, stuff I wanted to try that we had tried before,” Solski said.

Kisielewski said she was confident going in, which she attributed to Solski’s “encouraging words.”

She came up with a rum and caramel sauce to cover the cheesecake.

“I thought it was really good,” she said.

The dessert took fourth place.

Winning the title “really gives me a confidence boost,” she said.

“It let me understand what it means to be put under pressure, to really stay organized and just work as a team,” Kisielewski, 18, of Worth, said.

Jablonski, 19, also of Worth, said he didn’t feel much pressure until the three judges were making their decisions.

“A lot of the teams over-cooked their sauces. Or, it kind of evaporates. That’s why we made sure we had enough sauce,” Solski said.

For the salad “we poached the apples in wine, and made the apple cider vinaigrette for the dressing. Then, we made the candied walnuts. Blanched them, fried them, added powdered sugar,” said Moser, 17, of Alsip.

“I enjoy seeing all these different ingredients. You take them, mix them all together,” Moser said. “I like seeing it all come together.”

Moser said he felt “a lot of pressure” because Shepard students had won the previous two years “and we wanted to make it a third year.”

Despite their success at Moraine Valley, none of the three want to become professional chefs.

“I’ve thought about it in eighth grade and freshman year, but it’s a lot of stress to be cook,” Moser said.

Jablonski isn’t keen on the long hours needed to be a chef at a popular restaurant.

“That’s why I’m here,” Solski said.

When he was younger, Solski worked as a chef in the city. One day, his father told him “If you continue to do this, it will be hard to have a family.”

“So, I decided to go back to school. My adviser at Moraine said ‘Why don’t you teach culinary’,” recalled Solski, who earned his culinary degree at Joliet Junior College.

Chef Dean Eliacostas, head of the culinary program at Moraine Valley, was impressed by the students’ professional approach.

“They work extremely well as a team. They’re extremely well organized. They knew all the steps, procedures and techniques,” Eliacostas said.

“Everything was spot on, seasoned properly. The chicken was cooked perfectly. The gnocchi was soft and pillowy,” he said.

Chuck Pine of Chuck’s Southern Comforts Café; John Hogan, a corporate chef for Whittingham Meats; and Kevin Wassler, a chef for Nestle Foods, were the judges.

“Every year, the bar gets raised a little higher,” Eliacostas said. “It’s very difficult going into a foreign kitchen.”

Moser, an all-conference defensive end for the 2023 Shepard football team, said kitchen preparation is “not even close” to preparing for a game.

“The nerves are kind of the same. Once you get started, it all goes away,” Moser said.

There is a tie between cooking and football at Shepard.

Shepard culinary students prepare the pre-game meal of chicken parmesan when the Shepard football team hosts.

All three winning chefs plan to attend Moraine Valley this fall to begin their college education

“Moraine’s good because you all have dual credit. Through my culinary class, you each get four credit hours,” Solski said.

Moser laughed when he recalled how teams from Eisenhower and Richards “were talking smack” on the bus ride to Moraine Valley.

Richard had won the contest in 2013, 2018 and 2019. But Shepard — the champion in 2016, 2017, 2022 and 2023 — had the last laugh on the bus ride home.

“We left with three medals and two plaques. They left with one medal and no plaques, so that felt pretty good,” Moser said.

Shepard will go for four in a row on April 29, 2025.

Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.