We had the unique opportunity to film the Schoolcraft College culinary salon team during a practice run-through as they prepared for their upcoming hot food competition at this year's American Culinary Federation Central Region Qualifier.

Directing the team is Chef Drew Sayes, CMC, whose vast culinary competition experience enables the students to be guided by one of the nation's leading Master Chefs. Prior to joining the Culinary Arts faculty at Schoolcraft College, Chef Sayes served as Executive Chef of The Townsend Hotel of Birmingham, Walnut Creek Country Club, and also Ritz-Carlton Hotels – in Dearborn, Michigan, Marina del Rey, California, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Buckhead, Georgia. He was also the Regional Executive Chef for Morrison Children’s Hospital at Egleston Atlanta.

The five person team are all students who will graduate this coming May: Madilyn Grupa. Jordan Demchak, Allison White, Novirah Lone, and Keenan Post.

Depending on how they do at the competition on April 18th will determine if they move onto the national competition in the student team category.

We interviewed the students who offered their personal thoughts on why they chose a path in the culinary arts. They also gave us a sense of understanding of the intense pressure to be part of a team working on tight timelines that need an extremely focused work flow plan in order to prepare four dishes with six portions each in the 70 minutes of time allotted.

This will give us the opportunity to shine a light on the day in the life of current culinary students which will add a nice dimension to the story in our film, Detroit: The City of Chefs.