High school students from across the Western Slope are competing in the kitchen.  Saturday, they went head to head in a cook-off.

There were five different schools, seven different teams, and one common goal: make and present the best meal at the ProStart High School Regional Cooking Competition.

Each team had sixty minutes and a three-course meal to make.

Carinda Pitt, a junior at Fruita Monument High School, says, "It is nerve racking. It’s not like on Iron Chef when they're all calm and collected."

All the participants are part of ProStart, the National Restaurant Association's two-year program designed to prepare high school students for work in culinary arts and hospitality.

"I want to open up my own bakery here in the Grand Junction area," Pitt said.

This competition is a practice round for what’s ahead. At the beginning of March all of these teams are going to the state competition in Denver.

"I feel prepared. I don't know about the rest of the team but I do," Fruita Monument junior, Samantha McCleary, said.

The winner of the state competition will represent Colorado on the national level this summer.