After serving a delicious three-course meal, the San Dimas High School culinary team was crowned the 2025 National ProStart Invitational Champions on May 1-3rd. Their winning menu featured a Chilean seabass appetizer in coconut, ginger, and lemongrass broth, followed by a lamb strip loin entree with truffle pomme puree. They shocked judges with a coconut mousse encased in a tempered chocolate shell, filled with mint-cherry compote for dessert. Competing against top high school teams from Baltimore, Maryland, San Dimas stood out to the judges specifically for their presentation, taste, and skill.

The group of talented young cooks rehearsed every day leading up to the competition. “The only thing I was thinking was trying to make everything perfect and just do what I normally do,” Kyle Yamate said. “We were rehearsing every day anyway and always had somebody watching us rehearse, so it was sort of normal to me already.” That sense of normalcy was one of the elements in their championship show.

Each item on their menu was a result of teamwork. From mapping out the layout of the flavors to balancing the pacing from one course to another, the students made sure that flavor was always important. “When it was our final menu, we all worked together as a team to add to it,” Kyle said. “Our number one priority was just producing really good tasting food.” What was her favorite dish? The pan-seared Chilean seabass appetizer, which was especially highlighted by the judges as being tasty and innovative broth combination.

The climb to the top, however, was not easy. “The biggest challenge in the competition were all the roadblocks along the way that my team and I had to face in order to win,” he also stated. From unforeseen timing errors to technical errors, the San Dimas team needed to keep their cool and stay concentrated. Fortunately, they had set themselves up well for this high-pressure environment by practicing hard on a daily basis. “We did really well under pressure because it was just like how we practiced every day.”

Winning the national title at home wasn’t a victory in the kitchen by itself insane experience. “Winning nationals with me taught me what I really want to do in the future, but also allowed me to be able to say thank you to all of the people who have supported me in getting to where I am,” said Kyle Yamate.