Newtown High School Students Show Their Chef Side

The white linens were out, the black chef jackets were on and the smell of sesame, ginger and other flavors waft through the lobby of Newtown High School on Thursday evening.

For students enrolled in the advanced culinary program at Newtown High School, it was the finals, so to speak. They were hosting a night of hors d'oeuvres and other gastronomic delights for family and friends to demonstrate what the students had learned throughout the year.

The sophisticated spread of dishes ranged from the savory to the sweet, and included samplings from the East – Thai chili shrimp – the West – hot chocolate and cinnamon churros reminiscent of Mexico – and some things in-between – paella sushi and garden gazpacho.

"You guys really exceeded the expectation of anyone walking through the door," teacher Brian Neumeyer said. "It was absolutely flat-out phenomenal."

The setting may have been the school lobby but the execution of the dishes, including quality and presentation, was representative of something much more professional, he said.

"You guys don't realize what you guys did – it was special," Neumeyer said. "Hopefully, it's a memory you take with you."

In planning their dishes for the finale – in many cases cooking it for the very first time – the students collaborated with each other in teams of two or three.

Seniors Melanie Isola and Jordan Mathurin settled on a dish of curry pan with a cucumber mint raita, which is essentially a fried dumpling filled with beef, potatoes, carrots, onion and curry paste and accompanied by a cucumber yogurt dip.

Isola, who will attend Boston University in the fall, found the recipe in a cookbook and brought it to Mathurin. Both agreed it was the right dish for the occasion.

"We wanted something that would be like a finger food but also more than one bite," said Mathurin, who is headed to Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island in the fall.

The dish also appealed to the students because it wouldn't require any utensils and could be eaten in a cocktail party setting.

"And the picture in the book made looked like it was just easy to eat and fun for us to do," Isola said.

Making the filling and dough was relatively easy but rolling out the dough and folding it over the filling took some time -- about an hour and a half for the two to complete 175 pieces.

For the team of Austin Hall, Steve Forgione and Jamie Bowers, their fusion dish of paella sushi and garden gazpacho accompanied by a hazelnut pear fritter was inspired by a recent trip to Spain.

The trio also wanted to be inventive and turn out something special for the night.

"What can we do with deconstructing and making something completely different than what you would expect, but still having the same flavors," Forgione, who is headed to the Culinary Institute of America in the fall, said of the trio's goal. "With the gazpacho, we knew we wanted something on the spicier side, and by adding the pear as a cooling element it really brought the entire dish together,"

The paella sushi was their example of "deconstructing" a dish – the paella – and presenting it as a single bite in the mold of sushi. A sweet pear fritter generously encrusted with chopped hazelnuts accompanied the gazpacho, which was presented in a shot glass with plenty of habanera chili mixed in for heat.

The class is comprised of a mix of students with different backgrounds and career aspirations.

Some said they've been cooking for as long as they can remember.

"I've been cooking since I was 4-years-old," said Josh Gilbert, a junior as he expertly swirled a sauté pan filled with Thai chili shrimp over an electric burner.

Others said they plan to take their skills further by entering culinary school in the fall while others said they were more interested in hospitality or other career paths.

The class has taught the students how to stretch themselves in the kitchen and turn out something new and creative, some said.

"It's just fun," said Hall, who is headed to Southwestern University in Texas. "I like trying different things. No one would think of pairing a pear and hazelnuts with gazpacho with habaneras and lime. I find that interesting."