Newport Harbor High wins culinary title

The Newport Harbor High School’s culinary team took first place over the weekend in the California ProStart Competition, a two-day cooking event held in in Sacramento.

The school, which competed against 15 other California high schools, will now advance to the finals in Overland,  Kan., April 30 through May 2.

This is the second year in a row that the high school has placed first in the competition, which is hosted by the California Restaurant Assn. Educational Foundation.

“This year we felt confident, but honestly I didn’t think we would win because there were a lot of strong teams,”  said Edgardo Meza, a senior at Newport Harbor High School.  “It feels awesome to accomplish something like this. We earn a lot of respect from our peers when we’re able to come back to school as winners.”

The culinary team included Meza, Gabriela Gomez, Jessenia Hernandez, Eduardo Medina and Kasey Hyde. The management team included Gabriela Gomez, Jessenia Hernandez and Irene Martinez.