The East Meck culinary team was good for gold at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) competition at Johnson & Wales on Feb 9.

“I’m real proud of them for winning gold,” culinary adviser Dale Richardson said. “They’re my babies, so I’m proud of them.”

The team, comprised of seniors Alexis Plank, Jensine Crowder and Kiarra Stanfield, has been training since mid October. Long hours were spent perfecting their technique.

“Culinary team is just like a sport. There’s a lot of hours that go into it,” Richardson said. “We practice after school, and the last two or three weeks [before competition] we began practicing twice after school. We didn’t leave [school] until about 8:30 every night.”

The team practiced three menus, and one of those three was chosen for the competition. The team made airline chicken breast, braised kale, risotto and truffles.

East competed with culinary teams around the state and ended up on top. The team will advance to the national competition that will be held in July.