MORGANTOWN – Like your great-grandma’s famous blueberry cobbler, things came out perfectly for the Monongalia County Technical Education Center this past Tuesday in Charleston.
Students in MTEC’s culinary and restaurant management programs swept every category in the 2026 West Virginia ProStart Invitational Hospitality Cup.
The event brought more than 60 students from 11 schools across the state to Embassy Suites in the capital city.
“I’m proud of our kids,” MTEC’s culinary advisor Chef Brian Covell said.
“We have pretty good luck every year anyway, but this is the first time we’ve gone down there and swept everything,” he continued.
The centerpiece was the culinary competition, which tasked teams to prepare a three-course meal in an hour’s time, using just two butane burners, with no access to running water or electricity.
Proposals for a restaurant concept were presented to another panel of judges in the Hospitality Cup’s management category.
“None of this is easy,” the chef said.
The meal was judged on taste and teamwork. The restaurant proposal had to be real-world and workable.
MTEC’s culinary winning team included Alicia Woodall, Kaiden Lafferty, Timur Aytac, Arrianna Farr and Yuva Raj.
Aytac was also the tech center’s winning restaurant management team, along with Raegan Brant, Sierra Umble, Bailey Willard and Trey Finomore.
Willard, Finomore and Aytac also took the top trophy in the waiter relay competition.
The Morgantown students will represent West Virginia next month in Baltimore at the National ProStart Invitational gathering.
Every year across the U.S., more than 160,000 students participate in ProStart classes and sanctioned events.
And since its inception 26 years ago, more than 1 million students nationwide have gone on to count themselves ProStart alumni, with scores of them making careers in the hospitality industry.
Look for that with MTEC’s most recent ProStart champions, Covell said.
“You’ll be watching them on the Food Channel,” the chef said. “You’ll be dining in their restaurants.”
