GUILDERLAND — “Food is beautiful,” says Emily Tice.

The recent Guilderland graduate was named Outstanding Student of the Year at the Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School graduation ceremony and was one of two students among 400 at the Capital Region BOCES Albany campus to win a SkillsUSA scholarship.

Working with food is an art form, says the culinary arts student. “You can really express yourself with it. If it’s baking or cooking, whatever you’re doing, you are putting a piece of your heart onto that plate and you are working hard for it and you’re making something that is truly beautiful.”

Tice has loved baking and cooking since she was a child, growing up in Guilderland. Her father’s mother lives just down the street from her family.

“My Grandma bakes a lot so, whenever she would let me help, I’d try and get in there,” says Tice in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

She went on about her grandmother, “She’s always trying new recipes … She’d always make jam and pickles. And that would be my favorite activity to do.”

Tice’s mother used to work at the Ronald McDonald House in Albany. “She would bring me in as a little kid and I’d always see the volunteers cooking,” she said.

Tice joined in as soon as she was old enough. The not-for-profit houses out-of-town families who have come to Albany to get medical treatment for their children. The families are housed and fed free of charge.

Tice, as a teen ambassador, would cook dinner or bake for the visitors.

“Everybody’s just so happy in the kitchen,” she said. “I feel like, when you make something, you’re really proud of yourself. And it’s bonding.”

Tice, who attended Guilderland schools since kindergarten, starting at Westmere Elementary, decided in her sophomore year to sign up for BOCES for her last two years.

“Both of my parents went to BOCES when they were students,” said Tice. Her mother was in the cosmetology program and her father learned to be an electrician.

“They own an electrical company now so it worked out for them,” said Tice.

“It’s been the best choice I ever made,” Tice said of her decision to spend half of every school day during her junior and senior year in the BOCES culinary arts program.

“I went every day and I got to do what I love instead of sitting in a classroom. I don’t do great in the classroom setting. I get good grades … but I’ve just never enjoyed it. But getting to go to BOCS and cook every day and to share this passion with other people in my class who also have it, it’s been amazing.”

Tice said, “You become a family really.”

She also credited her culinary arts teachers with her success.

“Most of the teachers there have been in the field for quite some time,” said Tice. Speaking of chefs she worked with, she said that, after years of working long hours and not being able to see their families even on holidays, “They went back to school for teaching and then started teaching at BOCES.”

Chef Paul Rother, Tice said, is her mentor. “He has taught me my passion for culinary,”  she said.

“My first year, I had Chef Paul Dolan and he is amazing too. He’s a bit stricter and tougher so I’d always work harder to try and please him. So I always say that’s where I got my drive from.”

Tice’s favorite thing to bake is bread, the staff of life.

She walks through the process, sounding like a biologist and a chemist, as she describes letting the yeast bloom. “You have to bloom it in warm water, usually 110 degrees,” she says, noting she knows the temperature by feel — “it’s just above bath water.”

“Then you pour in your yeast and your sugar because sugar feeds yeast and makes it more active, and let that just set while you get everything else ready, and it will start to kind of bubble and get foamy, and then you combine your flour and salt and all your dry ingredients.”

As a culinary student, Tice was a National Technical Honor Society inductee who also served as vice president of the Albany Campus SkillsUSA chapter.

Her BOCES experience, she said, “created so many wonderful opportunities that I never would have had at my home school or anywhere else.”

She describes Skills USA as a national organization that trains leaders for the world of work.

Tice competed successfully in SkillsUSA competitions for both of her years as a BOCES student.

Her second year, Tice competed with 10 or 15 people in her program to make it to the regional competition along with a classmate. At the regional competition, Tice placed first, and then moved on to the state competition at the Syracuse fairgrounds. Competing against the best 30 or 40 student bakers in the state, Tice came in second. 

Asked if it was stressful to compete, she said, “I did six competitions this year, so I got kind of used to it but definitely at first it’s a little scary … nerve-wracking for sure. But, personally, once I get in the kitchen and get started and in the zone, I just block everything else out and just focus on what I’m doing.

“And it is fun, stressful as it may sound; it’s an amazing experience and you get to meet all these other amazing talented people.”

Tice concluded of her two years at BOCES, “It just created confidence.” 

Speaking to The Enterprise on her graduation day, Tice said she was looking forward to her future. She will be a student in the culinary program at Schenectady County Community College with a baking concentration.

One of the reasons she chose the program was that she can continue to live at home. She’ll get college credit from her BOCES courses so she doesn’t have to take the introduction to cooking course.

Eventually, Tice wants to open her own bakery. She already works at a bakery, Fiorello Bakery & Deli on Western Ave., where she has perfected the art of baking cookies.

But one of the reasons she is excited about the Schenectady program is “I have the chance to do the Disney culinary program,” she said.

Selected students spend four months living at and cooking for Walt Disney World in Florida.

“I love disney so much ….,” said Tice. “I grew up going to Disney a lot with my family because my grandparents live down there in the wintertime … It’s just very comforting.”

As Tice continues to put her heart on a plate, she says she isn’t upset when her creations are eaten; she’ll often snap a picture, she says.

But, mostly, she said, “I love when people enjoy my food or my baked goods … It is very fulfilling.”