Recently, I had the chance to fulfill my long-cherished ambition to be a judge in a cooking competition. On Saturday, November 12, as part of Asian Heritage Month, Pi Delta Psi hosted its fourth annual Iron Chef competition and asked me to be one of their judges. This was an opportunity I relished, being a long-time fan of the Food Network cooking extravaganza on which Iron Chefs, masters of a particular cuisine such as Japanese or Italian, face off against challengers in extravagant battles of culinary skill.

The competition was organized much like the actual television show. Campus organizations signed up to compete, sending teams of three people: one official cook and two helpers. The contestants could use any ingredients they wished to as long as they used the featured ingredient. Contestants brought their own pots, cooking utensils and serving dishes. For each team, Pi Delta Psi provided a cooking station with portable burners and some basic cooking ingredients. Contestants had a half-hour to prepare and one hour of cooking time. The winning team would be awarded an autographed Iron Chef book. 

HSS junior Henry Guo was the MC of the competition, which included a large number of Asian-interest campus organizations. The competition was organized in large part to promote awareness of Asian culture. 

"We want all organizations to share their cooking and expose everyone to different cultures. We want to break down the stereotypes about different cultures," said Jea Suh, a senior in Tepper and cultural chair of Pi Delta Psi. 

That night, Rangos was set up with a multitude of tables, each bearing the banner of its corresponding organization. The competition began promptly at 9:30, when the featured ingredient was announced: potatoes. As music blared in the background, participants rushed to grab potatoes from the large baskets set up in the middle of Rangos Ballroom. I wandered about the room to see what each team was up to. Such a bland but versatile ingredient as potatoes would take some unusual effort to render into tasty, creative dishes. 

Each team soon became immersed in a frantic amount of chopping, peeling, and boiling.  Members of each organization crowded about the tables to cheer on their teams and take pictures. At 10, after the half hour of preparation time had elapsed, the cooking time was extended to an hour and a half. 

At 11:30, the judging began. I was on the judging panel with three other students: CIT senior Evan Tahler, Edward Wrzesniewski and Sidharth Singh, both CIT sophomores. We were all eager for the judging to begin as we sat down in the middle of the room and each team successfully presented their dishes. Each team's dishes were scored in three categories: taste, style, and originality. At the end, the judges tallied their scores and met to deliberate who would become the winner.

As the tasting wore on, several trends emerged. Almost every group seemed to have prepared some sort of potato salad. Latkes, or potato pancakes, were also popular. Bacon proved to be one of the most popular ingredients, whether wrapped around asparagus stalks and potatoes, as the Pi Delta Psi team had done, or as an ingredient in the potato salads. 

The competition featured some outstanding dishes. One particularly memorable example was from the Taiwanese Students Association (TSA), who prepared hearty potato gnocchi and a rustic soup with fried potatoes in garlic sauce. The Asian Students Association (ASA) had by far the best potato salad that included carrots, raisins, and pears, the latter ingredients added a sweet touch to a traditionally ordinary dish.

Also outstanding was the team called Breakfast of Champions from Alpha Epsilon Pi, which cooked up a tri-color potato mochi, a sticky, Japanese patty made from sweet rice. They were also the only one of the teams to feature potatoes in a drink, in this case a thick potato milkshake with other fruit flavors such as berry. The Hong Kong Student Association (HKSA) also prepared some notable entrees such as sweet potato dumplings and chicken stuffed with a spicy potato filling. 

The team that carried off the honors of the night was Sigma Nu-1 (one of two teams sent by the fraternity). They had delicious potato latkes and pierogies, but their best dish, which won high marks for originality, was a dessert made of vanilla ice cream with French fries dusted with cinnamon and sugar. As the contest came to a close, the members of Sigma Nu-1 received their prize with gracious smiles. The competition was simple but it highlighted what the showy pageantry of Iron Chef's Kitchen Stadium often obscures: great cooking. 

	story images

Team members take a break from cooking to talk about the dishes that they're preparing for Pi Delta Psi's Iron Chef competition.	Sisters of Kappa Phi Lambda work at Pi Delta Psi's Iron Chef competition to cook creative dishes that all include potatoes.
The Asian Students Association's Iron Chef team labors over portable stoves to create a delicious meal.	The Hong Kong Student Association made an impressive decoration for their table out of potatoes.
A member of Alpha Epsilon Pi's "Breakfast of Champions" team pauses to pose for the camera.	Many student organizations participated in Pi Delta Psi's Iron Chef competition as part of Asian Heritage Month.
At Pi Delta Psi's Iron Chef competition, teams threw together a wide variety of foods to spice up the required ingredient, potatoes.	At Pi Delta Psi's Iron Chef competition, student organizations incorporated potatoes - the secret ingredient - into interesting and delicious dishes.
CIT senior Evan Tahler tests out one of the many dishes at Pi Delta Psi's Iron Chef competition.	Sigma Nu-1's winning meal included potato latkes and pierogies, with vanilla ice cream covered in French fries, cinnamon, and sugar for the dessert.

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