Dining Services heated up the stoves and the competition in the Appalachian Dining Hall in a battle of the student chefs.
In Wednesday’s semi-annual Meal Madness, five teams of three to five students competed to win a free dining hall dinner and bragging rights.
As music played, Baxter posed for pictures and onlookers tasted free samples from dining hall food providers. The groups were given 35 minutes to create an appetizer and 30 minutes to prepare an entrée.
Each group had access to a “common pantry” of ingredients ranging from eggplant to apple cider, but were required to make use of a mystery basket that they did not have a chance to see beforehand. The items included were tahini, Oreos, bitter melon and ground buffalo meat, and participants had to use one in the appetizer and all four in the entrée.
According to John Enright, director of Resident Dining, Meal Madness is a nationwide Sodexo event run at college campuses during October.
“It kind of helps us bridge a relationship with the students,” Enright said. “They get to work with the chefs from their dining hall and understand who they are and part of it is about building relationships as well. If they take the advice from their chef coaches, they really have the ability to learn a lot.”
Students, however, were not left on their own. Each team was assigned a dining hall chef who could show them cooking techniques and provide ideas.
“Working with the students, watching the different levels of skill and culinary expertise and cultural backgrounds brought here to a competition is wonderful,” said Richard Herb, a Sodexo chef manager.
Mehjabeen Hassan, a senior majoring in English, won last year’s competition and said she was hoping to reclaim the title.
“All of my teammates graduated so I have a completely new team this year with all of my close friends,” Hassan said. “I really like the idea of the whole event itself, so definitely once you win, you want to do this again. Fingers crossed, may the odds be with us.”
The competition was judged by Dean of Students April Thompson, General Manager of Sodexo Jim Ruoff, women’s basketball head coach Linda Cimino and Director of Auxiliary Services Peter Napolitano. Each judge awarded points based on taste, presentation, creativity, team organization, cleanliness and small portion sizes.
“I was probably the easiest judge because I liked everything,” Cimino said. “I ate the whole thing, it was delicious. I don’t think any of them had ever really cooked before so that was good that they kind of all came together.”
In the end, though, the Student Culinary Council (SCC) edged out Team Dragon Teabags by a score of 249 to 243 with their buffalo slider appetizers and a stir-fry bison with Oreo crumble toppings.
For Louis Semanchik, a member of SCC and a junior majoring in biology, the madness isn’t over — he’s already looking forward to next year.
“I’ll be here to defend our title graciously,” Semanchik said.
Steve Molinari, a member of SCC and a senior majoring in political science, credited his team’s victory to the help of their Sodexo chef.
“We owe a big thanks to Chef Sam,” Molinari said. “He definitely pulled us to the top, but I think everybody had a great time.”