FENI Summit helps OCVTS students win first place with sugar showpiece

Students in the pastry arts program at Ocean County Vocational Technical School (OCVTS), Brick, N.J., took first place for Best Table Display at the 14th International Chefs' Night Out event on March 1. Their pastry-arts instructor and coach, Dennis Melia, attributed their win in large part to the sugar showpiece techniques he brought back after taking the "Sugar Pulling & Blowing" Master Class at the 12th annual Foodservice Educators Network International (FENI) Summit in Chicago last month.

The winning sugar showpiece from OCVTS students

"The Master Class in sugar pulling and blowing from [French Pastry School] Chef Sébastien Cannone allowed me to bring back to my students a higher level of skills ... and paid off in a big way," said Melia in an e-mail.

Chef-instructor Dennis Melia (far right) and the winning students at International Chefs' Night Out

For more information about FENI, visit www.fenisummit.com.