While many high school students spend money on tech gadgets and clothes, Russell Cunningham has invested in high-end German cutlery and the classic French cookbooks of Julia Child.
Cunningham, a 2014 Duluth East High School graduate, has earned his way into the culinary arts contest at the annual National Leadership and Skills Conference held by SkillsUSA in Kansas City, Mo., this week, representing Minnesota. He placed first at a state culinary competition for the chance.
His attention to detail was evident during a practice run of his menu in early June, when he carefully piped spinach mousse into a sautéed chicken cutlet. That chicken was placed on a bed of greens with a crisp of cheese and a green onion that had been sliced in such a way to allow it to hold carrots diced brunoise-style.
“I love … people’s reaction when they have something they really like; the look on their faces,” Cunningham said, noting he takes special pride in the artful plating of food. “People normally eat with their eyes.”
Contestants of the national competition must show mastery of classic cooking techniques. They also will be judged on how well they organize and clean their stations. Cunningham will have about six hours to create a four-course menu from scratch, making one plate of each course for judges and one for the public to view. He’ll break down chicken to sauté and braise and for stock, concoct pan sauces, julienne vegetables and roast and puree red peppers for a creamy bisque.
He had been running through his entire menu for the third time in East’s classroom kitchen, and said he would probably do it three more times before the competition.
“I still don’t think I am ready,” he said earlier this month.
Cunningham will attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., this fall, following the steps of 2013 Denfeld High School graduate Matt Johnson, who competed in the same national competition last year. The institute has a lengthy list of notable alumni, including Grant Achatz, Anthony Bourdain and Cat Cora.
Cunningham, who moved to Duluth from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan midway through his high school career, always had an interest in food, he said. But it wasn’t until enrolling in Glenn D’Amour’s introduction to foods class that it became a passion. He also enrolled in the more advanced cooking classes at the school and worked at its student-run restaurant, Food for Thought.
Before D’Amour’s classes, Cunningham said, he hadn’t diced an onion or minced a clove of garlic, and now he’s mastered the five French “mother sauces.” Those sauces -including béchamel and espagnole -are the foundation or starting point for most other sauces.
“He’s definitely one of the best students I’ve had,” said D’Amour, the culinary arts instructor at East.
Students like Cunningham, he said, are who the program is designed for - “for those who want to take it to another level.”
After culinary school, Cunningham hopes to study under various chefs and perhaps cook in other countries to expand his horizons.
“It’s really rare for a kid that age to have that ambition,” said his mother, Lisa St. Onge. “He’s got it all mapped out.”
When the family moved to the Northland, they bought a home within the East High School boundaries after Cunningham researched local high schools and chose East for its culinary and choir programs, she said.
He’s also sought extra skills instruction from D’Amour and chefs he’s worked under at both Northland Country Club and Zeitgeist Arts Café.
He will do well in the competition, St. Onge predicts, noting, “He works very well under pressure.”
