Just months after their predecessors won the nationals, Kapiçiolani Community College's 2010 Team Hawaii is in the countdown Feb. 6 American Culinary Federation student competition in Albuquerque, N.M.

Chef Alan Tsuchiyama is coaching the team of six and they'll be departing for New Mexico soon.
The competition consists of three phases: cold food preparation, skills salon and cooking, in which the teams prepare a pre-assigned starter and three other courses of their own creation.
The team began meeting and practicing just days after the triumphant Team Hawaii 2009 returned from the ACF nationals in July in Orlando, Fla.