Help Frato’s Judge! $2 Pizza Slice Competition with Conant HS Culinary Students! (5-19-18)

$2.00 Slices on Saturday, May 19th!  Conant High School Pizza Competition!

Help Frato’s and Conant High School Choose the Winning Student Pizza!  $2.00 Slices on Saturday, May 19th!  (Walk-In Only Price). 

The Pizza Slice that sells the best while receiving the best feedback/ratings (comment cards will be available for the first 200 slices) from you will be chosen as Frato’s 1st Pizza Competition with Conant High School Culinary Students!

The Winning Student Pizza will make Frato’s New Seasonal Menu change in September for 6 months along with other gifts to the student.  The best part is they will receive a professional marketing video created by Andres DeLeon, the most sought-after Restaurant Content Creator in all of Chicago!

Frato’s has expanded our High School Pizza Competition to Conant High School in Hoffman Estates.  You can read more about Frato’s at Elk Grove High School from the Daily Herald or the last EGHS Winner and his Inspirational Story Here.

Conant HS has two amazing Culinary Teachers in Angela Drenth & Jacqueline Brown.  They have carefully guided their students to an incredible first competition.  It was too close for us judge, every single pizza was seriously really really good, so we narrowed it down to two finalists to choose from. These two finalists had the most complete all-around package.  After announcing the two finalists, they both worked hard modifying their pizza for the final competition with guidance from Frato’s Expert Culinary Team!  Learn more about Frato’s Culinary Apprenticeship Program Here, a first of a kind program in the nation teaching Culinary Students how to become Personal Chefs! This is not an industry known for training, but Frato’s is attempting to break that mold right here in Schaumburg!

Just a few weeks ago, the kids were tasked with creating a unique pizza recipe and writing out the recipe on paper.  On paper, they must be precise in what ingredients they are using as well as how much of each ingredient they will have, how it will blend together, etc….  This might sound easy, but it’s a lot harder than most realize.  Not all recipe concoctions will work well together.  Some students went simple, others went bold and risky!  It was a lot of fun to watch!

From there, they needed to prepare and bake the pizza to perfection (a true culinary skill) while also taking into consideration the flavor profile of the recipe they built (some ingredients work together better than others) and the importance of appearance (strategic design).  Today more than ever, people do indeed eat with their eyes.

On top of this, we didn’t want to teach solely culinary skills.  At Frato’s, we look to develop others and we believe in training to be well-rounded.  With that in mind, we wanted to open their eyes to the business, marketing, and entrepreneurial side.  These days, culinary students need to learn more than just culinary skills to truly compete in the real world.  The business and marketing side not only focuses on the appearance of the pizza but so much more.

For judging, the Conant kids were tasked with preparing to speak in front of others and sell the Frato’s judges their story.  They had to present their pizza with a story behind it which included why they created it, what’s unique about it, a fun pizza name, etc…Everyone knows a good story sells!  You can learn the Frato’s Story Here.

Again, the point of these competitions are to build well-rounded skills and allow these talented kids the chance to gain real-world experience as early as possible in their young careers.  We appreciate our new partnership with Conant High School and hope to continue it for years to come!

The Final Conant Pizza Showdown: Destiny vs Tim!

Each Slice is $2 on Saturday

Conant Pizza Finalist 1:  Destiny’s Creamy Chicken Pesto Pizza Slices!

Conant Pizza Finalist 2:  Tim’s Bacon Poutine Pizza Slices!