Students fired up their grills, sported chef hats and wielded spatulas to showcase their best culinary creations for The Meal Madness Culinary Competition Tuesday at Carter Hall.
Students who participated were required to prepare an appetizer and a main course dish of their choice in a limited amount of time to be judged on taste, presentation, creativity and team organization.
Marketing Coordinator Jason Montgomery was pleased with the turnout.
“This is the first year USI has participated in Meal Madness. I would like to continue doing this—maybe even two or three times a year.” Montgomery said. “We (had) a pretty good turnout for the first time.”
Five teams of students competed for bragging rights as “Master Chef” for their club or organization. Participating teams were the Rugby Club, the Chinese Club, Alpha Kappa Psi, the Student Board of Directors and the Vegetarian Club.
Each team was given six ingredients and access to the “common food pantry,” which contained a limited supply of fruits, vegetables, pasta, herbs and spices to choose from.
Archie Eagle appeared twice during the competition to bring contestants additional “secret ingredients,” which were required to be incorporated into either the appetizer or the entrée.
Archie started with chocolate bars, then small bags of Doritos chips.
Other ingredients already provided included habanero peppers, figs, mint leaves, graham crackers, Mountain Dew and chicken (or tofu).
Each team had to use at least three of these ingredients in both dishes. Chocolate from Archie was required to be included in the appetizer, and Doritos in the main course.
Senior business management and health services double major Tessa Coburn from Alpha Kappa Psi said she entered the competition solely for enjoyment.
“I felt that it was something fun and non-business related that we could do as a group,” Coburn said.
All of the teams wore shirts representing their clubs, including sophomore education major Steven Toress.
“We competed for fun and for the honor of the rugby team,” Toress said.
Students not participating in the competition still came out to watch and show their support for friends and fellow club members.
Morgan Burton, a senior business administration major, said she came out to “cheer on my brothers of Alpha Kappa Psi.”
Physical education major Megan Newhouse-Bailey was the only one on her team who was able to compete, but still came out strong, whipping up vegetarian-friendly dishes in which she substituted tofu for chicken.
“I’m the President of the Vegetarian Club. I just want to show that it’s really easy to cook dishes that taste great and don’t include meat,” Newhouse-Bailey said.
The judges panel included five faculty members: Provost Ronald Rochon, Student Outreach Coordinator Ashley Hughes, Men’s Head Basketball Coach Rodney Watson, Advertising Professor Bob Jeffers and Associate Provost for Student Affairs Marcia Kiessling.
Jeffers said his dream was to be a chef and attend Cornell, and that he has always been fascinated by food.
“When Megan asked me to judge, I couldn’t say no,” Jeffers said. “A lot of these students have very good technique and this event inspires them to show off their creativity and get involved while having a great time.”
Meal Madness, although a timed cooking competition, didn’t share the boiling pressures and tensions of Hell’s Kitchen.
Music played in the background while guests and judges walked around complimenting and observing the teams’ work and chatting amiably with each other.
Teams were focused on preparing the best entrée, but still had time to enjoy themselves.
The smell of burning chocolate at first worried some contestants, but by the end of the twenty minutes, each team had prepared an appetizer.
The rugby team chose to stay simple and classic with sliced strawberries and bananas on a graham cracker with layers of melted chocolate, while Alpha Kappa Psi prepared an intimidating looking pasta salad with chicken, sautéed vegetables, and chocolate drizzled over mint leaves, garnished with fruit and a fig.
The Chinese club used mozzarella cheese and pasta shells atop sliced avocados, while both the vegetarian club and the Student Board of Directors made healthy salads.
Montgomery concluded that the ingredients provided were picked at random and that would challenge students’s creativity as well as “go well together.”
“The secret ingredients were intended to spice things up, so to speak,” Montgomery said. “We wanted students to have fun and get involved and be creative. Hopefully next time we will have even a bigger turnout with even more teams competing.”
