Their usual clientele are teachers and students, but two culinary students at Reservoir High School soon will be catering to the Washington elite.

Seniors Daniel Bresson and Chelsea Ross were recruited by a Washington catering company to assist on Inauguration Day.

The students, both 17 and residents of North Laurel, are not yet sure to which of the dozens of balls, galas or dinner parties they'll be assigned or what they will be doing. But they're geared up to hold their own with professionals in the industry -- something both aspire to be someday.

Their teacher, Madge Johnson, said she's proud of Daniel and Chelsea.

"At first when Daniel told me, I said, 'Stop playin'.' Then my head started spinning. It just blew my mind," she said. "What a great experience for them. They're representing Reservoir High School and the Howard County Public School System."

Daniel's mother, Cindy Bresson, operations manager for Occasions Caterers' corporate division, helped the teens get the Inaugural gig.

Occasions Caterers, of Washington, is catering numerous events during the weekend before Inauguration Day, as well as 20 parties on Jan. 20 alone.

"This is such a big weekend," Cindy Bresson said. "They'll be working with experienced chefs that we have here every day. They will see everything that goes on behind the scenes and how much work it is."

Bresson added that the company still is finalizing plans and that the events it will cater range from small, elegant dinners at homes to larger events at The Smithsonian, other museums and historic homes, auditoriums and embassies.

"You never know who you might see," she said of the Inauguration festivities. "I think it's going to be a great experience for them. They'll definitely make a contribution. They're going to be tired."

As he used a paintbrush to meticulously coat candy filling inside star-shaped confection molds in class Dec. 15, Daniel said his interest in cooking came from both his mother and his father, who works at Casey's Crab Co., a seafood restaurant near Fort Meade.

During the summer, he works full-time at the restaurant and has recently begun taking on weekend jobs with his mom's company.

"My parents made it look fun," he said of cooking.

Daniel added that he was pleased to be working on Inauguration Day, considering his limited professional experience.

"I really didn't have much experience, except this class," he said. He said he is unsure of his post-high school plans, but hopes to balance his interests in cooking and psychology.

Across the room, Chelsea whisked, measured and mixed the ingredients for a chocolate fudge cake with raspberry buttercream.

She recently was accepted at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, which is well-known for its culinary program, and also has recently applied to The Culinary Institute of America in New York.

Chelsea, who interns at Sweet, a bakery in Ellicott City, said she hopes to become a pastry chef.

She added that her mom's love of cooking rubbed off on her and that she thinks the skill comes naturally.

"I'm kind of obsessed with food," she said, adding that her parents are "jazzed" about her working Inauguration events.

No job too menial

As an audition of sorts before being recruited for Inauguration Day, both Chelsea and Daniel have been working weekend events for Occasions. Earlier this month, they assisted at a dinner for roughly 4,000 people at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

At an event that large, the young chefs learned quickly that tasks must be delegated.

Daniel was tasked with plating thousands of butternut squash and green bean salads. Chelsea cut bread -- "for hours." At a more intimate event at a home Dec. 14, she spent several hours frying french fries in a stainless steel bowl over a propane burner, having to improvise since a deep fryer wasn't available.

She hopes to prove herself and gradually be promoted to more challenging jobs in the kitchen, she said.

Johnson insists there's no job too menial at an event as prestigious as an Inaugural ball.

"I told them, 'Tell me everything you've done. I want to know. I want to feel like I was there,'" Johnson said. "I even said I'd do the dishes for them."

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