Education

SCCC culinary team finishes 2nd at national competition

The Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Knowledge Bowl team consists of: (from left) faculty advisor Andrea Glick, Lynn Bohlen, Vincent Sperling, team captain Satoko Matthews, Lillian Senior and team manager Sherry Mazze. (Credit: SCCC courtesy)
The Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Knowledge Bowl team consists of: (from left) faculty advisor Andrea Glick, Lynn Bohlen, Vincent Sperling, team captain Satoko Matthews, Lillian Senior and team manager Sherry Mazze. (Credit: SCCC courtesy)

There’s more to cooking than just following a recipe or throwing some ingredients into a pot. In fact, even budding chefs need to be aware of numerous technical terms and procedures.

The Suffolk County Community College’s Culinary Team was tested on many of those facts at the American Culinary Federation’s National Culinary Knowledge Bowl. 

The team, including Vincent Sperling of Wading River, nabbed second place.

The Culinary Knowledge Bowl, run by the American Culinary Federation — a professional organization for chefs and cooks — took place in Kansas City Sunday. The competition is based on students’ culinary know-how, tested in a Jeopardy-like setup.

The Suffolk team won a regional competition, qualifying for nationals as the Eastern division representative.

At the national battle, Suffolk beat Kendall College of Chicago, representing the Northern division, and lost to Guildford College of Greensboro, N.C., representing the Southern division, in the finals.

“Clearly the combination of our team’s excellent academic preparation, culinary talents and hard work was hard to miss at this prestigious national competition,” said the college’s Eastern Campus Executive Dean, Dorothy J. Laffin in a press release.” Our entire learning community is delighted at their success.”

The Culinary Arts and Hospitality Center at Suffolk, located on Main Street in Riverhead, offers state-of-the-art kitchen facilities for students interested in pursing work in the culinary field.

The other team members were: Lynn Bohlen of Port Jeferson, Satoko Matthews of East Patchogue, Lillian Senior of Farmingville and team manager Sherry Mazze of Selden. Andrea Glick served as the team’s faculty advisor.