Post Falls students head to national culinary contest in Baltimore

Five Post Falls High School students will leave North Idaho carrying a bigger message than school pride: Idaho’s restaurant and hospitality pipeline is back on the national stage, and local employers have a stake in where it goes next.

Devanie Robert, Madison Cornett, Davien Anthony, Danica Bastedo and Kadence Powell will represent Idaho at the National ProStart Invitational, set for April 24-26 at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland. The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation calls it the country’s premier secondary school competition focused on restaurant management and culinary arts, with teams competing in two tracks, culinary and management, for a share of $200,000 in college scholarships.

For Idaho, the appearance carries unusual weight. Coeur d’Alene Press reported that this will be the first time in about 12 years that Idaho students have represented the state at the national ProStart competition. That makes the Post Falls team’s trip more than a weekend contest. It marks a rebuilding moment for a career pathway that can feed directly into North Idaho restaurants, resorts, hotels and catering operations that depend on trained cooks, managers and front-of-house talent.

The team has been guided by Justin Lee, executive chef at The Coeur d'Alene Resort, and Post Falls educator Nicole Hessa. Lee said rebuilding and growing the program with Hessa has been rewarding, and he noted the students have spent months preparing. That preparation matters in ProStart because the competition tests far more than flavor. Teams are judged on culinary skill, management, teamwork, timing, creativity and knowledge of how real restaurants operate, the same mix of abilities employers look for on a busy dinner service or in a high-volume resort kitchen.

Davien Anthony offers the clearest example of why the contest resonates beyond the classroom. He said he has cooked at home for nearly 10 years and worked in the restaurant business for nearly three years, and that food is his passion and the career field he intends to pursue. For Kootenai County, that is the larger story behind the trip to Baltimore: a local student, trained with help from a chef at one of the region’s best-known resorts, stepping into a national competition that can lead to scholarships, industry credentials and a stronger workforce for North Idaho’s hospitality economy.