Alec's SCAP (Senior Culinary Arts Project) Assignment and Meal

We have been hearing all about Alec's SCAP assignment all year; it counts for something like 75% of their final grade but luckily it is broken down into 10 or so mini assignments throughout the year.  Yesterday he presented his meal and we were allowed to invite up to 7 family members/friends to taste it. He won't know his grade until everyone in the class has gone but I'm pretty sure he crushed it.  Our meal was delicious. 

Here are the assignments the project was broken down into:

1. Pick a region and research culture, history of native ingredients, and cooking methods and write an essay about what they discovered.-- He picked GREECE!

2. Figure out what native ingredients they wanted to work with and design a menu; each menu had to have a native fruit in their dessert and a native protein for their entree.  They had to come up with a 4 course meal: bread, appetizer, main dish and dessert.  The main dish had to have a protein, vegetable, and a starch. 

3. Actually design a menu; colors, decorations, font, etc. Give a short description of each dish that sounded appealing. 


4. Find recipes; they could use any source and make sure (or adapt the recipe) to feed 8 people. Including figuring out exact portion sizes. 

A sample of the rice recipe he typed up; directions continue onto backside and he has one of these  recipes written up for each item he had to make.

5. Price out the cost of each ingredient and figure out the price of each portion of food being served. 

just one example; but he has one written out for every single recipe 

6. Create a requisition sheet-- that basically means coming up with how much of each ingredient is needed for make everything for the meal. 

Only part of his list to give you an idea (there is a backside too)

7. Plan of work; a brief overview of each step needed to make the entire meal with time estimates. 

8. The day before he had to serve he was given a Freshman assistant and to prep all the food that can be possibly be prepped ahead of time and stored overnight. On the day of all the food needs to be ready to start serving at 10:45 (he can work on the main course while we're eating our appetizers, etc.) 

The tray of mini pitas for the whole table 

whipped feta 

flavored dipping oil

Hummus

Our salads

Main dish: grilled eggplant, beef souvlaki, and lemon herbed rice with feta crumbles

tzatziki sauce 

the lemon panna cotta with raspberry sauce was SO good! 

One tired but happy chef-- relieved to have it all over with!

9. Now that his meal is over he has to put together a binder about all his SCAP work, get a slideshow showing all the steps with photos of him making the actual meal (him and his friends are trading the job of taking photos of each person cooking/prepping the meal), and make a 20 minute oral presentation to either industry professionals or school administration for later in the year.

10. Actually present and get feedback/ grades from 3 of the professionals/administrators plus his teacher -- this won't happen for a few weeks because, again, they wait for all the other students to have gone and since Alec went first he has a few weeks to get ready for his oral report. 

Linking up with: Thinking Out Loud, Thankful Thursday,  Spread the Kindness, 








Comments

  1. Wow! I am totally blown away. Alec has a true gift. The meal looks incredible, beautiful and oh so delish. Please keep us posted on his grade. I agree- he crushed it!

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    1. Thank you! He said he was eavesdropping a bit on the chefs as they were taste testing the meal and he was cleaning up and they had a lot of positive things to say so it's definitely a good sign.

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  2. So impressive! Everything, from all the work that went into the preparation (my non organized mind is blown away by those details of the cost and amount of each item needed) to making the food that looks so good. Great job, Alec!

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    1. Yeah, some of the aspects of the project were so much more time consuming than others. Luckily, Alec can be really organized when he needs to be. Plus he often works ahead; he's already putting together a 3-ring binder and typing up notes for his talk.

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  3. Congratulations Alex on a fabulous job. Bernadette, https://newclassicrecipe.com

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  4. The meal looks wonderful and delicious. I love Greek food. Well done Alec.

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    1. Thank you! We had never eaten much Greek food before though I knew I enjoyed tzatziki and pita/hummus... but everything was delicious.

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  5. I had no idea that culinary school was that rigorous, but WOW. Way to go, Alec! I know you are so incredibly proud of him, Joanne! The entire meal looks delicious.

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  6. What a wonderful meal! No doubt delicious, and the pride on his face, priceless!

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  7. Wow - what an involved project! But it does seem like fun. I love his menu- he did a great job designing that! I enjoyed reading his descriptions, too. Everything looks fantastic!

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    1. Thank you! I thought he did a great job on his menu too. I loved the though he put into it all; the laurel wreath since it has been a symbol of Greek Gods/Goddesses, the lemon leaves for the lemons that are grown there, etc.

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  8. Wow, that looks incredible!! Sorry I didn't show up yesterday, my invitation must've gotten lost in the mail ;)

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  9. oh NICE! I hope you're able to draft him for regular family meals, Joanne. wonderful!

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    1. Nor normally no, he much prefers making breads and desserts to cooking "actual" foods.

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  10. ...ah, to be one of the lucky 7! Congratulations, Alex.

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  11. Wow - is the only word I can think of! That is so impressive...and totally cool!! He could make dinner at my house every night:)

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    1. Thank you!... but he so very rarely bothers to cook anything at dinner.

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  12. That's amazing! Such a lot of prep work and then the actual meal, everything looks delicious! Great job, Alex!

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  13. Replies
    1. :) It has been a fun (if a bit stressful!) assignment.

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  14. My goodness, that's a lot of work! I'm already very curious to his results! Good luck Alec!

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  15. Holy cow, Alec knocked it out of the park! Everything looks delicious and so fresh. What a treat! I bet he was exhausted and I also bet he got an A+++!
    xo,
    Kellyann

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    1. Aw, thanks! We took it as a real good sign when his teacher asked him to make the pita bread and hummus again the next day so they could sell it out of their display case.

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  16. Sounds like he did crush it! Just the assignment itself is impressive and there is so much detail in this work. Well done ! The food looks great and I love the menu descriptions. Such a gift he has.

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  17. WoW! I am super impressed with all the detail and work which went into this project -- above and beyond the actual cooking! I agree that he CRUSHED it! I hope his final grade reflects his hard work!

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  18. I wish I had to do this when I was younger. Talk about great training just for real life. How wonderful he got an assistant too.
    XOXO
    Jodie

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    1. Yes, lots of great real world experience here! Including the dishwasher breaking down the day he needed it most and having to source for other ingredients when some were missing!

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  19. This was really a lot of work! All of the dishes look delicious and top quality. You must be so proud of him!

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  20. OMG! How amazing is all of this! How proud you must feel, Mom. What a great job, Alec. ❤️

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  21. What an impressive project! I'm sure we will be reading about this young man in many restaurant reviews! I love Greek food, too!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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  22. This is unbelievably cool. Is he in culinary school (I don't know what SCAP means.) The menu (and photos of the finished food) all look fabulous and the prep work/planning is fabulous. This would be a really wonderful way to teach a kid to cook, serve, think the whole process. And it would have to make any restaurant experience richer, realizing what the chef must do -- it's a lot more than cooking. I am so impressed.

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    1. He is in a technical high school majoring in Culinary Arts; SCAP stands for Senior Culinary Arts Project. He does have plans to go on in the culinary field for college so this seemed like a fabulous project to get him prepared... on top of his job working at a local Cafe.

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  23. It really looks delicious! That was a great choice! Yum!
    www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com

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  24. Wow, Joanne, Alec truly outdid himself!
    The level of detail and dedication he poured into this project is remarkable!
    You must be so proud of him!

    Hugs and blessings

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  25. Wow! Everything looks delicious! Looks like a good grade winning meal for sure!

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  26. Oh wow! I've been on the Mediterranean Diet for a month now and just loving it. All this food is right up my alley! It looks amazing, especially those mini pitas.

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    1. Those were probably my favorite part of the meal! LOL. I loved it all but I am a bread/carb girl at heart.

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  27. Oh Joanne, what a fantastic job Alec did on his project!! I know you are so proud of him and I appreciate you sharing the menu and pictures of his food. Please tell him that I’m so impressed.
    Thank you for your visit to my birthday post. The cake was amazing!!

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    1. Thank you so much! We are super proud of him.

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  28. Oh my goodness that salad looks amazing! -All the food looks wonderful. He did a fantastic job! Thank you for sharing your post with us at The Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #26.

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  29. Oh this is so awesome! And I LOVE the country he chose! I would eat Greek food every day if I could. I could eat that tzatziki sauce by itself!!

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