Six student chefs at Kapiʻolani Community College are honing their skills as they prepare to compete as Team Hawaiʻi at the Central and Western Regional Salons in Joliet, Illinois, February 3–5.

Jeremy C. David, Richard G. Lee, Kimberly Lim, Qihao (Sam) Tan, Sean K. Uyehara and Christian Rae K. Wong were selected among other finalists in the American Culinary Federation sanctioned State Culinary Competition Expo held December 2016. Since their win, team members under the guidance of chef-instructor Jason Peel have been spending hours learning nuances of the trade and fine-tuning their techniques in various categories of food preparation.

Related: “ Kapiʻolani CC culinary teams win at Hawaiʻi American Culinary Federation competition,” December 13, 2016

“Competition is a teacher, too. Through endless repetition I am learning that I can own a process as I become intimately familiar with it,” said one of the students.

“I have seen the competition for four years now, and I believe diversity and creativity of our cuisine here in Hawaiʻi are as good if not better than anywhere else,” said Peel. “Our student team and all our chefs are definitely dedicated to what they do.”

Peel says Team Hawaiʻi wants to make the college and the state proud of their efforts.

—By Louise Yamamoto