THE BARTOLOTTA RESTAURANT GROUP, MILWAUKEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WILL HOST AN ICE CREAM COMPETITION AMONG STUDENTS
January 17, 2017
Bartolotta Restaurant Group and Milwaukee Public Schools To Partner with National Ice Cream Company Co-Founder, Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s.
The Bartolotta Restaurant Group and the Milwaukee Public Schools are excited to announce a fun and educational ice cream-making competition among students through their shared partnership, ProStart. Prostart, a culinary arts program, was started to build broad career readiness skills needed for post-high school success and to connect students to restaurant and hospitality industry opportunities.
The ice cream competition will take place on Friday, January 20 and will feature Jerry Greenfield, the co-founder of the national company, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, to serve as one of the four judges. The competition will take place at James Madison Academic Campus located at 8135 Florist Avenue from noon to 3 PM. Additional judges for the competition will include Dr. Darienne Driver, Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, Jennifer Bartolotta, CEO of Train-2-Gain, Mr. Gregory Ogunbowale, principal of James Madison Academic Campus.
With the goal of connecting students and hospitality industry leaders, Jerry Greenfield will bring his expertise as a culinary leader and entrepreneur to the school. Through national partnerships with entrepreneurs like Jerry Greenfield, the schools are confident that they can continue to show students the path to success in the hospitality industry.
Ben & Jerry’s was started in an old gas station in the 70’s and has since grown to almost 200 franchised shops, a wonderful example to the students of the retail side of the industry. Jennifer Bartolotta, a key mentor in the ProStart Program said: “Through continued partnerships with successful businessmen like Jerry, we are thrilled to continue to teach our young adults in the ProStart program all of the opportunity that lies before them if they want to make hospitality a career.”
Six students from the four MPS high schools within the Prostart Program – Bay View, James Madison, Vincent, and Washington – will compete and will each be responsible for creating two flavors of ice cream. They will be judged on texture, flavor, creativity, and presentation. The competition will continue to focus on key hospitality skills such as time management and budgeting. The winning team will have their ice cream featured on the menu at Osgood’s located at The Mayfair Collection for the month of February.
ABOUT BARTOLOTTA RESTAURANT GROUP
The Bartolotta Restaurants is a Milwaukee-based restaurant group owned by brothers Joe and Paul Bartolotta. Their first restaurant, Ristorante Bartolotta, opened in 1993 and today, the group owns and operates 17 restaurants and catering facilities, including four upscale establishments, two upscale casual concepts, a pair of supper clubs, a pizzeria, a barbeque joint, an upscale food court, and a lakefront custard stand, as well as three quick-casual restaurants in the Milwaukee airport. More information can be found at www.bartolottas.com