What started as a culinary contest among McGill’s 10 residence halls in 2011 has since grown into an international competition with serious bragging rights on the line.
In 2014, McGill created a new version of their Student Iron Chef competition, and opened the event it to schools across North America. They called it the Inter-University Iron Chef Competition. The 2019 competition was the sixth iteration of the event, and was hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the winner for 4 of the past 5 years. 2019 was the second year Carleton participated, and the first time a Canadian University took the trophy home.
The event included competitors from the University of Massachusetts, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, and McGill University. Throughout the weekend, students had the chance to socialize and share their passion for cooking with each other.
Carleton’s Food Science students Emma Khazzam, Hye Ryung (Grace) Park, and Zitian Zhang had to cook two dishes from scratch in just two hours. Their main dish was served tableside with a blue heirloom carrot chicken brodo that turned red on contact with the lemon juice in the bowl (using the pH dependent color change of anthocyanins). The dishes were evaluated based on flavor, plate representation, culinary technique and how each team personalized the meal. This competition is unique in that none of the competitors are culinary students.
In the end, the Carleton students won both best appetizer and main dish, giving them a clean sweep of the competition!
We are extremely proud and thankful for all the hard work the students and other Carleton members put in for this achievement. Special thanks to Chefs Daniel Poulin and Lucas Baxter from Carleton Dining who helped the students prepare for the competition, as well as Jane Skapinker and Christine Stewart who helped with the logistics and marketing. The 2020 competition will be happening at Carleton, CU there!
If you’re a Carleton student and would like to participate in next year’s competition, message Dining Services on social media.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 in Be The Best, Dept Awards, Dining, Set the Example
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