(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – A team of six students from the culinary arts program at Kentucky School for the Deaf (KSD) will compete for the first time March 10 in a culinary competition for high school students from across America who are deaf or hard of hearing.

KSD’s Def Chefs team will compete against teams from seven other schools for the deaf and hard of hearing in the ninth annual Deaf Culinary Bowl in San Francisco. The competition will take place from noon to 3 p.m. ET Saturday at the Culinary Institute of San Francisco.

Team members, who are students in Mandy Byrne’s culinary arts class, were selected based on their performance in an open culinary audition. Here are the students who will be participating, with their hometowns:

  • Layne Adkins, Hanson
  • Aeiral Collins, Barbourville
  • Sulmi Gomez, Shelbyville
  • Sarah Joiner, Bowling Green
  • Benny Shirley, Marion
  • Zhirtien Warmack, Lexington

The KSD students will face off against teams from California School for the Deaf, Fremont, the host school for this year’s Deaf Culinary Bowl; American School for the Deaf; California School for the Deaf, Riverside; Florida School for the Deaf; Missouri School for the Deaf; Rocky Mountain School for the Deaf and Texas School for the Deaf.

Teams were given the competition theme, “Italiano,” six weeks before the event with instructions to prepare three dishes: an appetizer that must include olives, a main dish that must include an airline chicken breast and a dessert. Teams must shop for their own ingredients the day before the competition at a local supermarket, and each dish must be prepared and presented in a specific time. The KSD team’s menu will include an olive, fig and walnut tapenade on rustic bread toasts; fettuccini with peas in a Parmesan and Gruyere Mornay sauce and a pan-seared airline chicken breast; and chocolate espresso cannoli.

Teams will be scored on the selection, presentation and flavor of their dishes; and on their management skills, safety and sanitation skills, and culinary preparation techniques.

Teams also will participate in culinary workshops led by deaf chefs and tour and dine at Mozzeria, a deaf-owned and -operated pizza restaurant in San Francisco.

The competition will be streamed live on YouTube on Saturday, and results will be announced at a banquet later in the day and posted at 10 p.m. ET on CSD Fremont’s Facebook and Twitter pages.