By Chris Moffitt,
Have you ever imagined yourself starring on an episode of “Top Chefs” or masterfully creating a delectable ratatouille? Or maybe you’ve simply microwaved a burrito and called it a day. Regardless, the incredible experiences had by junior Peter McQuaid in the cooking industry are most certainly desired at some level by everyone.
It all began with a Spanish project Peter had to do for school. Since Peter says, “I have always loved cooking for as long as I can remember,” he of course decided to do his project on the topic of food. This led him to meet Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, a four-time James Beard award nominee who had her flagship restaurant Barrio Cafe named the 14th best Mexican restaurant in the U.S. After meeting this highly prestigious chef, Peter says, “I felt a really strong connection with her and we continued to talk and form a great relationship.” This relationship soon resulted in Peter getting offered a job at her new restaurant, Barrio Urbano!
Peter has loved every minute working in this restaurant. He does not love it for the money, the prestige, or even the discounts. Instead, Peter loves it simply because of the atmosphere and the ability to do something he is passionate about. He says, “I love being able to make something and then see someone else enjoying it. There is such a satisfying feeling, knowing that someone is enjoying something that you have poured your heart into creating. Working in a restaurant lets me look out into a busy dining room and see people enjoying something that I in some way created.”
Chef Esparza must have seen this passion because she soon introduced Peter to a program called C Cap which holds culinary competitions every year for juniors and seniors in high school. Hearing of this opportunity, Peter jumped on it and decided to compete this year as a junior. It was a very prestigious and stressful competition. Peter says he was most nervous about, “simply messing up, or even worse slicing my finger open in front of some on the best chefs in Arizona. But as long as you stay focused and keep your cool you can come out on top.”
And Peter certainly came out on top! Peter was named a Top Ten Junior, the highest rank a junior can receive, and will proceed to the finals on March 23. This will give him the chance to win many scholarships to prestigious culinary schools around the world!
But Peter’s success helped in another way. Because he performed so well in the competition, he was given a job by the Foodnetwork celebrity, Chef Beau MacMillan, who owns the restaurant Elements at the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort! Peter says he is “very excited to begin working with him at one of the most prestigious kitchens in Arizona!”
Peter has certainly achieved much of his success on his own, but he also attributes much of it to the skills he has developed at Tempe Prep. He says, “TPA has really helped me with my professionalism in this industry.” If Peter has to write emails to important figures or go in for professional interviews, he says that “TPA has helped me understand how to deal and cope with that kind of pressure and stress.” Furthermore, he says, “when cooking in the restaurant and I have tickets all across the board, TPA has taught me how to deal with that kind of chaos and pressure.”
Whatever it is, the crushing homework load, the respectful humane letters discussions, or even simply the engaging personable culture found here, TPA certainly prepares us to enter into the real world. It certainly helped Peter. Not to mention it was his simple school Spanish project that first propelled him to such success!