Cooking up a Career
Brittany Ozga’s skills in the kitchen pay off with a scholarship awarded by The Chef’s Academy.
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Five years ago, Brittany Ozga was a quiet 13-year-old with a rather stormy attitude about her new stepdad, Robert Steinmetz.
Luckily for Brittany, her stepdad was a very patient guy. He also was a great cook. “We started cooking dinner together,” Robert says. “It was a way for us to want to be part of each other, instead of fighting and arguing.”
Today, Brittany is a happy 18-year-old senior, attending Fountain Square Academy, a public charter school for grades five to 12. She recently was awarded the first $5,000 scholarship ever offered by The Chef’s Academy.
Brittany also will be the first person in her family to become a high school graduate and a college student.
“Cooking was a way for my dad and me to start our relationship,” says the oldest child of four.
It didn’t take long for relatives to see that Brittany had a natural talent for pleasing the palate. Her mom, Jennifer Steinmetz, is not only proud of her daughter’s accomplishments, she also enjoys Brittany’s culinary skills during family dinners. One of Brittany’s aunts recently stuffed a box with family recipes and sent the package from California to her kitchen-happy niece in Indiana.
Someone outside the family saw Brittany’s talents too.
Her advisor at Fountain Square Academy, Jane Bartsch, saw Brittany’s interest in cooking and her dedication to learning. So to expose Brittany to possibilities in the world of food, Jane invited representatives from The Chef’s Academy to visit the school. During that meeting, Jane learned about the Chef’s Academy Top Teen Talent contest.
“I literally went running down the stairs at school to find Brittany and tell her she needed to enter the contest,” Jane says.
Going for the prize
A chance at winning the scholarship was a huge opportunity to secure Brittany’s post-high school chances to enter a career she loves.
Part of the contest guidelines required entrants to gain support through social media. So Jane got busy contacting every single person on her personal Facebook page. She then alerted other faculty members about the contest guidelines. Brittany, her friends and family did the same.
Within days, Brittany received hundreds of votes and encouraging words on her Facebook page from people she had never met before.
The second segment of the contest required Brittany to prepare and serve a special dish for Chef’s Academy judges.
That was certainly not a difficult task for Brittany, her stepdad says.
“She cooks dishes I sure don’t know how to cook,” he says with a laugh.
Anticipating how much the scholarship win would positively affect her future, Brittany decided to go big with the recipe. She whipped up Honey Dijon Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin with Apple Chipotle sauce.
“My family and neighbors came over to try it,” she says of the tasty trial run. “They could smell it on the grill, and they were hunting me down.”
After that initial try, Brittany was still working toward perfection. So she prepared the dish again and brought samples to school.
“I was telling everybody, ‘You’ve got to try this. Brittany’s dish is in the teacher’s lounge,’” Jane says with a laugh. “It was delicious.”
Looking to go pro
When she isn’t working most afternoons in the family kitchen, Brittany says she’s known to take a seat in front of the TV, to watch Food Network shows. Her favorites are Chopped and Ace of Cakes.
After graduating from The Chef’s Academy, Brittany says she would love to attend a pastry arts program. And she would love to travel the globe, learning about different cuisines around the world.
For now, Brittany says her favorite part of cooking is to perfectly prepare meat on a grill.
She not only enjoys the challenge of grilling to perfection, she enjoys family interaction outdoors while waiting to dish up the dinner.
This young woman is definitely crazy about cooking.
But she has many other gifts, too, Jane says of Brittany.
“She’s got a great personality. Brittany has a good head on her shoulders. She has inner drive and ambition.”
Brittany is quick to remind everyone that her scholarship wasn’t won with a solo effort.
“Mrs. Bartsch is wonderful,” Brittany says as she smiles at her teacher. “I don’t think I could have gone as far as I have without her. And my dad taught me how to cook.”
When Brittany recently won a gift certificate for being the first student at Fountain Square Academy to win a scholarship, she promptly purchased a set of quality knives for her future.
Late last month, Brittany returned to The Chef’s Academy to compete in a teen cook-off with nine other culinary hopefuls.
As her family and advisor cheered her on, Brittany prepared a dish requested and timed by the culinary judges. She placed third in the contest and received another $1,000 toward the 18-month program she will attend at The Chef’s Academy in the fall.
“I wish I had gone to school and done what I wanted to do,” Robert says. “I wanted to go to culinary school too. So this is so wonderful for Brittany.”
“She’s the star of this show,” Jane says with a smile.
