Future JWU Students Address the Future of Food

Each year, JWU’s College of Food Innovation & Technology (CFIT) hosts the Future Food Scholarship Program, a national recipe scholarship program for accepted students in culinary, baking & pastry arts and other food-related programs. Participants submit recipes for their choice of savory or sweet dishes that address one or more critical food challenges such as carbon footprint, food waste and nutritional outcomes.

The top four submissions in two categories, “savory” and “sweet,” were invited to participate in the scholarship program’s judging event. Of the eight students invited to participate, two (the top-tier finalists in each category) would be awarded full tuition to JWU and the six other students would receive partial scholarship awards. 

Six judges — three for each category — gathered to score the finalists’ dishes on creativity, quality, plate presentation, essay content, writing quality and effectiveness of their recipe in addressing at least one food system challenge.

Andres Prussing, a certified chef at RATIONAL, served as a judge with an agenda: helping future generations at the students’ alma maters. In addition to a full tuition scholarship supported in part by RATIONAL, each top-tier awardee’s high school will receive a RATIONAL iCombi Pro oven.

“We at RATIONAL really want to support the younger generations and give them that opportunity to proceed with studies for their culinary career,” said Prussing. “You can see that the finalists have a lot of passion.”

JWU alum and instructor Austin Scoles ’18, a Certified Master Baker and Certified Executive Pastry Chef, helped judge the “sweet” category, explaining: “Whenever I am watching the students, I'm really looking for them to be creative, to incorporate their ingredients in a new way and really think about their dessert in a sustainable light. I'm also looking for organization of their stations and their plates. I want to see a nice clean plate that's very well thought out.”

JWU Master Instructor Fred Tiess, a World Certified Chef, participated in judging the “savory” category at the scholarship program event and shared how it’s never too early to develop good habits in the kitchen.

“We’re looking for whether students are using the correct methods, keeping their station clean, working through their flavors and using good time management,” Tiess explained. “If students are thinking two or three steps ahead, that shows forethought.”

Meet Winners Marwa Anchassi and Tien Tran

Marwa Anchassi, who is transferring to JWU Providence this fall to pursue her Culinary Arts degree, reimagined her childhood dinnertime favorites through a lens of sustainability and economics with her savory Lebanese kafta twists.

“Some of the things that I put in there are a way to adapt to the U.S. compared to Lebanon,” she noted. “I use dried mint, and that’s something my grandma would always do; it's something you don't often see in the U.S. being used. I use turkey instead of beef, and I use the onion peel in the recipe. Why throw it out? It's full of nutrients. You have the yogurt, it's full of protein. It's flavorful, in my opinion. It's kind of like a warm hug.”

Marwa, who someday wants to open a Lebanese-Italian fusion restaurant, loves how food builds community. “It can help people overcome hard conversations,” she said. “There are all these debates, but then you bring people together, and they're eating, not fighting. I think food is truly a way of connecting and bringing cultures together.”

Tien Tran, who will attend JWU this fall in Providence to pursue Culinary Arts and Food & Beverage Industry Management, earned the top-tier award in the “sweet” category for his recipe, “Corn, Barley, and Orange,” which celebrates an American crop that is diminishing in national consumption.

“We did a project in economics class, and I was researching the corn industry,” he noted. “Through that project, I found the downside of the sweet corn industry — how they're dying because most farmers are moving to feed corn. So that got me excited for introducing people to a new way of using sweet corn.”

Tien, who grew up in Norway, would love to open a restaurant there after graduation — but for now, he’s focused on what’s ahead for him at JWU. “While in college, I’d just love to go around and stage at different restaurants and get that experience,” he shared. “I'm in this industry for the adrenaline of it, the fun of it; nothing beats it.”

The eight program participants had the support of current JWU students, who participated in the Future Food Scholarship Program event as culinary assistants — an integral role at CFIT. Culinary assistants help chefs and kitchen managers (and in this case, scholarship program finalists) with tasks such as food preparation, equipment maintenance and kitchen cleanliness.

Alenys Borrás Otero '27, who is majoring in Culinary Nutrition, served as Marwa's culinary assistant during the event and appreciated Marwa’s stance on food connecting different cultures. “I came here for Accepted Students Day two years ago, almost on the dot,” Alenys shares. “I remember walking into this kitchen and seeing Chef Soto and being really excited. She's from where I'm from [Puerto Rico], so I remember being like, ‘I think I belong here. I think this is where I'm supposed to be.’”

How to Participate in the Future Food Scholarship Program

If you're a rising high school senior or future transfer student dreaming of pursuing culinary education at JWU, start imagining your recipes and be on the lookout for the 2026 Future Food Scholarship Program in your JWU application portal later this year.

Find Future Food Scholarship Program details

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