Morning Story Features Winning Dish From High School Culinary Program Contest

Denver's culinary scene has expanded exponentially in recent years, and many of the most exciting additions have come from young chefs. So how will tastes shift in the coming years? And who will be behind the next wave of restaurants? The winning dish from the 2024 Reinventing Brunch Competition offers a sneak peek at the young chefs of tomorrow.

The Colorado Restaurant Foundation recently partnered with Colorado Egg Producers to hold a special competition for the 2,000-plus high school students in the state who are enrolled in ProStart programs.

ProStart, short for Professional Start, is a nationwide nonprofit organization that offers immersive two-year culinary training programs to high school students. In Colorado alone, there are 47 programs that reach 85 high schools in total.

"Around 50 percent of adults pass through the food service industry at some point," notes Lexi Nines, program coordinator for the Colorado Restaurant Foundation. "So this is the kind of industry where we're really training the future of America, whether it's training them to be on time or how to work in conflict."

For the 2024 Reinventing Brunch Competition, students teamed up in pairs and put their own spin on classic egg dishes. Of the 28 teams and over sixty participating students, the winning dish was the Campfire Benedict, created by Mackenzie Gershkovich and Taia Rasmussen from the DCSD Legacy Campus in Lone Tree. The dish features blue corn waffles, bacon, hot honey, poached eggs and chipotle Hollandaise. It will be featured on the menu at all four locations of local brunch chain Morning Story from December 9 to January 19, and one dollar from each order sold will go to the Colorado Restaurant Foundation.
"I just wanted to give them a work-based learning opportunity of creating a dish and seeing what it would be like to actually execute it in a restaurant," says Nines. "Because obviously, doing it in the classroom is completely different than doing it on a line in the middle of brunch service on a busy Sunday."

Nines was met with a kismet surprise when she brought the winning students into the Greenwood Village Morning Story location to teach the team the recipe. The head chef, Tanner Pennington, had been a ProStart student himself thirteen years ago. "It was actually kind of a happy coincidence," shares Nines. "We got there and he's like, 'Oh, my God, I love ProStart. I was in ProStart.'"

For the young students to have the opportunity to come face-to-face with a real-world ProStart success story bore immeasurable value and reinstated the importance of the industry they're learning about. "That was very sweet that he had kind of gone through the same experiences as them and was bonding with them in that aspect," says Nines.
ProStart formats its training to educate students not only on how to work efficiently in the kitchen, but how to move up in the ranks and understand the business aspect of restaurants. "They're really learning the numbers behind running a restaurant, how to manage people, marketing tactics, all that good stuff," says Nines. "It really is a business management class through the lens of hospitality."

The programs also highlight the familial dynamics of the industry, ensuring that students work well on a team and learn to rely on their co-workers. "It's open to any sort of students, which is what I love about the program," Nines notes. "It's a place where students just get to belong. They always feel welcome."

The featured dish at Morning Story offers a unique way to give back. By simply enjoying a delicious breakfast, you can support the programs providing training to aspiring young chefs across the state.

For more information about Morning Story, including locations and hours, visit morningstoryrestaurant.com. To learn more about ProStart and how to support the program, visit chooserestaurants.org/programs/prostart/.