The competition, hosted by the MSU College of Education, Health and Human Development and the Gallatin College culinary arts program, has been held at MSU since 2018.

Seven high school teams from across the state competed Thursday, and the winners will be announced at an award ceremony Friday evening.

There’s more to cooking than just making the meal, said Michael Dean, director of the Gallatin College culinary arts program.

“It’s about teamwork, it’s about presentation, it’s about how to do it right and how to share it with others,” Dean said.

Each team had one hour to fully prepare an appetizer, main course, and dessert. They made six plates, with one course judged on appearance and the other on taste.

The competition boasted some 20 judges working as professional chefs — including the head chefs for Bozeman restaurants Jam, Revelry and Dave’s Sushi and Montana Ale Works.

The meal had to fall within a certain budget, and teams had to bring the ingredients with them. They also had to bring a pre-made menu detailing the dishes.

Teams spent months creating recipes and practicing cooking their meal, Dean said.

Some teams were seasoned competitors, like the one from Belgrade High School that won last year. But for others, Thursday marked the first time professional judges reviewed their cooking.

“This year we said we would just take a big leap of faith and try it,” said Karen Strong, the advisor of Flathead High School’s team who teaches family and consumer science. “We’re excited but also nervous.”

Strong teaches a culinary class with lots of students, but the five students at MSU on Thursday were the only ones brave enough to compete, she said.

The team moved fast and in near silence, with a familiarity that showed this wasn’t their first time preparing their meal — garlic toast, chicken alfredo, steamed carrots and broccoli, and peanut butter dessert bars.

“We picked what we knew we could pull off in an hour,” Strong said.

The team, which was dressed in matching white chef uniforms donned with their high school logo, got into Bozeman Wednesday evening. They had to rent a van for the drive, and trying to squeeze in everyone’s stuff and the food coolers was like playing Tetris, Strong said.

Strong watched her students work as she gripped a rubric, filled with judging criteria for the meal like degree of difficulty, proper knife usage, and cleanliness of the work area.

Other teams crafted entrees like pork tenderloin with honey garlic sauce, pan-seared lamb chops, and fettuccine mushroom crab pasta, while desserts ranged from caramel apple cheesecake to a grapefruit orange granita.

The winners will have the chance to compete at the National ProStart and Family Career and Community Leaders of America culinary competitions later this year, which are the two groups that helped organize the MSU event.

The culinary competition is being held in conjunction with the Montana FCCLA State Leadership Conference at MSU, which runs Thursday and Friday.

That way, students here for the cooking contest can explore other people-facing career options, too, said Lindy Hockenbary, president of the Montana FCCLA chapter.

That conference will feature workshops, lectures, and a college and career readiness fair for students interested in anything from hospitality to mental health services.

“We’re very family and community focused,” said Nicole Wanago, a professor in the MSU health and human development department who helped organize the conference.

“The goal is to expose students to different opportunities, and really give them that touch point to learning what community needs are and what they can do to help,” Wanago said.