Students fire up success at culinary high school
High school graduation season is in the home stretch and 80 New York City seniors will take their next steps Wednesday after studying at Food and Finance High School.
Those students found their passion in the kitchen, instead of the classroom, and their futures are heating up, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.
Seventeen-year-old Jason Urena found his salvation in the heart of New York City's Hell's Kitchen.
"Honestly, if I had never found this place, I think I would've been just a lowlife kid," Urena said.
His mother Dora, paralyzed since he was a baby, was his inspiration for going to Food and Finance. He's been cooking for her since he was 9 years old.
"She loves to eat. Every time I cook for her, she's like, 'Oh, Jason, what is that?' Like, 'I want some, you better give me some,"' he said.
Like Urena, some 400 other students from across the city attend to create their own recipes for success. Subjects like knife skills and precision in baking, are added to traditional courses like English and math.
"It's about making this become a rounded skill," culinary arts teacher chef Geoffrey Tulloch said. "You have to learn how to speak. You have to learn how to learn how to function in an environment that is crazy and still keep a level head."
Eighty percent of the students at this school are considered "economically disadvantaged," so kids rely heavily on scholarship competitions to further their education.
Senior Darwin Acosta is headed to one of the best culinary schools in the world.
"I just won a full ride to the CIA, to Culinary Institute of America," Acosta said.
He said it was his crepes that knocked it out of the park and earned him the $107,000 scholarship.
By senior year, students must leave behind their classroom test kitchens for internships in local eateries.
Celebrity chef Marc Murphy, who owns four New York City restaurants, hired six Food and Finance students.
"For me, it's also a business decision. I need cooks," Murphy said. "And you know what I got, a willing and able body that wants to cook and wants to learn and work with me and work for me. It's great."
Shania Thomas graduated from Food and Finance in 2012 and was the first-ever "teen champion" on the popular Food Network show "Chopped."
"It's not like what you see on TV," Thomas said. "It's sleepless nights, giving up weekends, time hanging out with friends, going to family functions, all of it. But I wouldn't-- I can't see myself doing else."
Urena competed on the show last year. He didn't win, but said that, after participating, he realized cooking is his passion.
"I can honestly, to myself, I think to myself, 'Oh wow. I can really cook.' Like, 'My God: This school taught me so much. I can really cook!"' Urena exclaimed.