The Culinary Genius

Photo compliments of Maria Buko (FB)

Taehlor Rapin ’16

Staff Writer

On June 26, 2014, Nouvel Catholic Central Alumni Maria Buko (’14) entered the SkillsUSA Commercial Baking Championship in Kansas City, Arkansas along with 40 of the other top high school bakers in the nation. She needed to put all of her passion and love of culinary baking into seven-and-a-half hours, in order to make 10 types of breads, pastries and cookies, along with a decorated cake. After the long competition came to an end, she succeeded and ended coming out on top taking first place. Maria earned a national title and full-ride scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, which is where she currently attends school today. Moving forward, in early August of this year Maria headed to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the WorldSkills baking Competition. The United States has not had a baking competitor participate in this Competition in eight years. Maria said she was a little nervous because the level of competition was really intense and she did not know what was coming at her. Maria worked hard and ended up placing 6th overall. The Nouvel community would like to congratulate Maria on her amazing accomplishments.