By Suzanne Schmidt
Staff Writer
Students in the culinary program at Sickles High School will be up early April 10 to cook barbecue dinners and bake a 250-foot cake.
The cake will run across the front of the school and will be made up of 150 cakes. The event will be at the school, 7950 Gunn Highway, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The money raised will be for scholarships for students graduating this year. The ribs, chicken and pulled pork will be seasoned with a marinade and rub and then smoked with hickory and oak. Each meal will be served with a side of coleslaw, baked beans and grilled garlic bread. Rib dinners are $7.50, chicken for $6.50 and pulled pork for $6. Cake is free.
The event will also feature games for kids and face painting. Rick Ceglio is the culinary teacher at the school.
“We have a fund to help the kids going to culinary college,” Ceglio said. “We are starting the parent/student camp out at 1 a.m. the day of to start smoking the meat. The students will be starting baking the cakes at Alessi at 6 a.m.”
A year of tuition at a post-secondary culinary school costs around $30,000 a year. Four of the culinary students will be attending the Culinary Institute of America in New York and two will be going to Johnson & Wales University. Two students are still undecided.
“This year we have about six to eight kids going to college,” Ceglio said. “It is hard to raise money. We try to give out about $1,000-$2,000 per applicant. This year we decided to go big by building the 250-foot cake.”
Helping culinary students attend college is important according to Ceglio. Students in the culinary program first learn the basics like safety, sanitation, measuring and cutting before graduating to more complicated topics like how to design and run a restaurant.
“We all like to eat and someone has to feed us,” Ceglio said. “Everyone enjoys good food. It just makes sense to train the next generation because without them what will we eat when we go out. It is a very honorable trade and it takes a very special breed of person.”
Tampa resident Chelsea Bateman, 17, will be going to the Culinary Institute of America in New York in the fall. She has applied for multiple scholarships.
“I went there last week to see the campus and it was amazing,” Bateman said. “It is such a great opportunity because there is such a variety of chefs working there. There are professors from all over Europe with all different backgrounds.”
Bateman plans to open a breakfast and brunch restaurant in North Carolina when she graduates.
“It has always been my dream to open a restaurant,” Bateman said. “I am excited about getting my bachelor’s because I will learn culinary management.”
Lutz resident Bianca Rodriguez, 18, is a culinary student trying to decide what she wants to do with the rest of her life.
“I am still undecided about where I want to go to school and what I want to study,” Rodriguez said. “I have been in the program for two years because I love baking and I love the atmosphere. I want to either go into culinary or teach young children.”
Getting a scholarship would help Rodriguez make up her mind.
“It would help a lot to win a scholarship,” Rodriguez said. “I would be able to make a decision if I knew.”
Rodriguez said she has learned a lot from the culinary program at the school.
“Chef Rick is great,” Rodriguez said. “He can be tough, but it is only because he wants the best for us. He does it because he cares.”
The students recently won second place for the state of Florida in the 10th Annual ProStart Culinary Team Competitions in Orlando. Students received some scholarship money but still need more.
“It is like the Super Bowl of culinary competitions,” Ceglio said. “They won scholarship options they can use to go to certain colleges.”
The cakes will be baked at Alessi Bakery with help from the culinary students. GFS Marketplace donated the cake mix and Rich’s Product Corporation through Innovative Concepts donated the icing. Home Depot is providing the buckets for the 200 pounds of icing to be mixed in.
For tickets or for information, call Ceglio at (813) 631-4742 Extension 288 or e-mail .
Sickles Barbecue will serve:
- 150 lbs. of coleslaw
- 30 gallons of baked beans
- 400 lbs. of ribs
- 300 lbs. of chicken
- 150 lbs. of pulled pork
- 200 lbs. of icing
- 150 cakes
