Harrington Raceway and Casino hosts culinary career event
Harrington Raceway and Casino hosted and sponsored a group of food and beverage professionals, students and community members Feb. 23 for a dinner and information session aimed at increasing awareness and support for local students pursuing culinary career paths.
The event was held in Bonz, the casino’s premier dining venue, where a group of approximately 40 gathered to learn about the Delaware Restaurant Association-administered ProStart program, which has brought together food and beverage employees at Harrington Raceway and Casino with interested youth in the Lake Forest School District.
Several students at Lake Forest are currently enrolled in ProStart, a nationwide two-year high school program that unites the classroom and industry to develop restaurant and food service leaders of the future. ProStart was originally launched as part of Gov. Jack Markell’s Pathways to Prosperity initiative.
Harrington Raceway and Casino’s involvement with ProStart was initiated by its chief operating officer of hospitality and Delaware Restaurant Association board member Hank Rosenberg.
A team of four students from Lake Forest High School worked with Harrington Raceway and Casino Executive Director of Food and Beverage DJ Silicato and Bonz Executive Chef Jason Ordway to prepare for a statewide competition at Dover Downs. Members of the winning team will receive up to $33,000 each in scholarship funds and earn a berth in the national competition set for April 29 in Dallas. Three of the students on the team are current employees at Harrington Raceway, after a relationship developed through a mentoring program in which Silicato, Ordway and others began a commitment through the Lake Forest School District.
“The ProStart program pulls together the Department of Education, educators, students, schools, mentors and industry,” said Carrie Leishman, president and CEO of the Delaware Restaurant Association. “By working with leaders in the hospitality industry like those at Harrington Raceway and Casino, we can provide a great opportunity to students. This program develops their leadership and youth development skills both inside and outside the kitchen.”
Kelly Haugh, Lake Forest High School Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, has seen firsthand what the ProStart Program has to offer. “The ProStart program is benefiting students by providing them with a preview of the opportunities available to them if they continue to study culinary arts and management after high school,” she said. “The ProStart Invitational both challenges students to perform in a competitive, high-pressure environment and allows students the chance to showcase their culinary skills.”
Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce President Judy Diogo was in attendance and also lauded the success of the program. “I had no idea about the ProStart Program until recently,” she said. “And hearing about it is so different from seeing it in action. What a great program. It provides high school students with the opportunity to experience the culinary world up close and personal. Having the chance to work with chefs, to learn not just basics of food preparation, but to learn how to prepare gourmet meals and then to also learn the formula for pricing out products and meals - it is just phenomenal. That experience is priceless. I thank Harrington Raceway and Casino for having the vision to get involved in this program and to help open up this world to local students.”
The food and beverage/hospitality industry has proven to be a vital industry in the First State with an estimated 46,000 employees in Delaware, approximately 10 percent of the state’s workforce.
For more information about the ProStart program at Lake Forest High School, email kehaugh@lf.k12.de.us.
