By CARLA RIVERA
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Joseph Messina, a 16-year-old Sun Valley teenager with a troubled past,
walked into a kitchen in Atlanta for a national cooking competition with little
more under his belt than youthful determination.
By the time the bread crumbs had settled, he
emerged with a $30,000 scholarship to pursue his dream of becoming a
professional chef after he completes a drug rehabilitation program.
Messina placed second last weekend in the Art
Institutes National High School Culinary Cook-Off competition against 23 other
contestants from throughout the U.S. The Art Institutes are headquartered in
Pittsburgh, and the arts and culinary-oriented school has 20 campuses, including
one in Los Angeles.
"I was speechless," said Messina, back
home after the whirlwind weekend. "They announced from ninth place down,
and we were sitting on the edge of our seats. When they got to second place and
said from the Art Institute of Los Angeles, we jumped up yelling."
The "we" included his father, Joe
Messina, his grandfather and two uncles who traveled from Boston to cheer him
on. For the last nine months, Joseph has lived at Phoenix House, a drug rehab
program in Lake View Terrace.
He came within a hair of first-place finisher
Anthony Tabb, a 17-year-old high school student and part-time body shop mechanic
from suburban Chicago. The final score, said Messina, showed him scoring 85.08
points from the six judges to Tabb's 85.83.
He "was the youngest one there and they were
very surprised at how well he [was] able to handle cutlery," said Messina's
father. "Joey enjoyed himself no end."
The contestants were required to whip up a menu of
crab cakes with remoulade sauce and dill cucumbers, Caesar salad and roast
tenderloin with a wild mushroom sauce, roasted new potatoes, and sauteed squash
and carrot medley.
They were judged on their demeanor, sanitation and
how they worked with their student helper, as well as presentation and taste.
Messina is eager to get his scorecard to see where he can improve.
He is scheduled to graduate from Phoenix House in
June and will begin his culinary course at the Santa Monica campus of the Art
Institutes in July. And although he's taken a few days off after the
competition, he's ready to get back into the kitchen.
"Even," he said, "if it's just to
wash pots and pans."