On Thursday, May 30, teams from Culinary Services (CS) and the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center competed in the annual Culinary Cup and Bake Off event. During three rounds of competition followed by the fourth and final round, Culinary Cup participants were presented with a mystery basket of ingredients. Throughout the allotted cooking time, they can also select sauce, spices, produce and other items from a pantry area to incorporate into their recipe. At the end of the round, they present their dishes to be judged on time, flavor, presentation, creativity and the use of mystery basket ingredients. Judges for the Culinary Cup included Americrown Chef and Culinary Arts Instructor Corbett Day, WLNS-TV 6 anchor Sheri Jones and SLE Director of Human Resources Lauren Marinez.
After the final round of competition, which featured jackfruit, rhubarb, Michigan-grown mushrooms, and chives and rosemary from the MSU Student Organic Farm, Jessica Ahrens and Kara Peruchietti from The Gallery at Snyder/Phillips were named Culinary Cup winners! Their final dish featured boiled and seasoned jackfruit, wild mushroom wrapped in shoulder bacon with goat cheese, and a rhubarb, strawberry and cucumber garnish.
Twelve teams submitted cookie recipes for the Bake Off competition as well. In addition to the judges scores, all baked goods were available for attendees to sample and vote on a crowd favorite. Judging for the Bake Off was conducted by CS Human Resources Coordinator Donyelle Hayhoe, Residence Education and Housing Services (REHS) Facilities Supervisor Shawn Rawson and REHS Facilities Manager Jim Steingreaber. Cookies were judged on taste, appearance, creativity and consumer appeal. Christina Pulice and Joshua Kim from Brody and West Circle won for their Fig-ure Out Our PB&J recipe. The crowd favorite was a S’mores inspired cookie created by Jon Korman and Greg Patrone from South Neighborhood.
The CS retail team and MSU Bakers created an out of this world galaxy themed lunch setup, featuring an extraterrestrial cauliflower bowl, crater crisps (chips), a sweet black hole of assorted desserts, Starbucks refreshments and more. Congratulations to the winning teams and thank you to everyone who contributed to a great event! Be on the lookout for additional photos on Eat at State social media accounts (@EatatState).