The knives were out, the stovetops hot, and the competition fierce at Dal’s Shirreff Dining Hall last Wednesday as two of the university community’s top leaders each donned a chef's coat for a unique culinary contest.
Aparna Mohan, president of the Dalhousie Student Union, and Dr. Kim Brooks, Dal’s acting provost and vice-president, academic, cooked up their own special dishes as part of Dal's first Iron Chef-style competition — battling it out to wow a team of four Dal judges and have their creation featured on campus dining hall menus for a night.
The contestants were each paired up with an experienced Aramark chef from Dalhousie's Food Services team — determined through a name draw — as they sought to plan, execute and plate their dishes with just an hour and a half on the clock. The teams were given 10 minutes to select spices, sauces, and veggies as they planned their dishes around a main ingredient.
Like the televised Iron Chef series, the teams faced the added challenge of incorporating mystery ingredients into their meals. In this case, five of them — all provided by event sponsor Kraft-Heniz. They were: Richardson’s Ultimate BBQ Sauce, Kraft Coleslaw Dressing, Philadelphia Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese, daikon and beluga lentil.
The creations
Mohan, a fourth-year industrial engineering co-op student, was paired with Chef Rohit Kallayil, operations manager for O'Brien Dining Hall. Together, they created their own take on chicken wellington served with a carrot and daikon salad.
Dr. Brooks worked with Bryan Davidson, Dal's head chef, to create a BBQ haddock dish served with a creamy beluga lentil stew and a carrot, daikon and apple slaw.
Dr. Brooks and Chef Davidson make a plan.
The tough, yet tasty, job of assessing each team's creations fell to a panel of judges that included Joe Farrell, executive chef of Dalhousie Food Services, Quenta Adams, assistant vice provost, student affairs, Isabelle French, associate legal counsel at Dal, and Sydney Keyamo, vice president academic and external at the Dalhousie Student Union.
The judges scored the final dishes out of 20 based on three criteria: presentation and plating (out of 5); creativity and use of ingredients (out of 5); and taste (out of 10).
Mohan and Chef Kallayil emerged triumphant, and their dish will be featured on the dinner menu at all Dal dining halls this Thursday (April 6).
The judge's table.
Want to whet your appetite? See a selection of images from the event below:
