Students train with top chef for upcoming Denver Food + Wine Festival

All-star Denver chef Carrie Baird is used to being the center of attention. She has been a contestant and judge on Top Chef, a reality TV show about cooking.

She also owns two Denver restaurants, which she took time from Thursday to teach students at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora one of her most popular recipes, fancy toast.

It's what she will be serving at the Grand Tasting at the Denver Food + Wine Festival on Saturday.  The students from Smoky Hill will be there to help her prepare it for that day.

"We're just going to be helping prep and put out food for everybody," said Smoky Hill senior Elliot Newman.

The students are part of the Colorado Restaurant Foundation program called ProStart, in which high school students start learning how to cook. In addition, for the Food + Wine festival, the Foundation pairs its ProStart students with a local Top Chef alumnus to create a small plate dish for the grand tasting. The students say this gives them valuable real-world experience.

"It's kind of a fast-paced cooking experience and you're working with real chefs, so it's genuinely hands-on, real experience that you wouldn't get inside a classroom," said Newman.

But before they do anything for the guests, they need to learn and practice in the school kitchen, which they say taught them a lot.

"We can use the corn cob to make custard," explained Smoky Hill student Anthony Quezada La Frankcis.

"The way to cut corn was a fun thing I've never seen before. The way you put it in a bowl and then towel over it," said Newman.

Plus, they got to sample the fancy toast, which was a big hit as usual.

"It was like a perfect breakfast bite, but not breakfast at the same time," said Newman.

Those who want to taste Chef Baird's fancy toast can attend the Denver Food + Wine Festival Grand Tasting on Saturday.