On Saturday, Nov. 16, Michigan Dining hosted the 5th annual Culinary Throwdown at South Quad Dining in Ann Arbor. The event, sponsored by the National Pork Board, features three timed rounds of competition. In each round, chefs are given 20 minutes to cook and plate their main course creation featuring pork.
Neil Lloyd and Mattison Emery, student supervisors from The Edge at Akers, worked with fire-braised pork shoulder in the first round. They created a plantain tostones dish with shredded pork, hash browns and guacamole topped with pepper curls.
The second round featured Jason Strotheide, executive chef for Brody Square and Heritage Commons at Landon, and Matt Wilson, executive chef for Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. Working with pork, venison and confit mushroom, the two crafted a blended burger on a potato roll with porter cheddar and apple brussel slaw and a side of butternut squash fries. The bun was branded with a Spartan helmet, adding an extra creative element to the dish.
In the final round, Corporate Executive Chef Kurt Kwiatkowski competed against Michigan Dining Executive Chef Frank Turchan. Chef Kurt used his pork collard steak to create Caribbean char-grilled jerk pork with cilantro rice, grilled pineapple habanero salsa and tostones.
At the end of the competition, MSU Culinary Services was declared winners with a score of 211-205! The overall record for Culinary Throwdown events is 4-1, with MSU bringing home the most wins. Thank you to everyone who worked hard to make this event happen and to the Spartans who came down to cheer on the chefs!