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Tiger Dining chefs go head to head with feature dishes in "chef wars" at The Edge

<p>Chef Wars takes place at The Edge dining hall on Oct. 19, 2021, in Auburn, Ala.</p>

Chef Wars takes place at The Edge dining hall on Oct. 19, 2021, in Auburn, Ala.

Students were treated to a cooking competition between four Tiger Dining chefs Tuesday evening as each chef featured dishes for students to enjoy and vote on their favorite.

The event replaced most of the stations normally operating during dinner dining hours. Instead, students were served feature dishes by chefs Andrew Cook, Randy Wilson, Jarvi Pettah and Brian Miller. 

Both students and chefs were interviewed by members of the Auburn cheerleaders who asked students which dishes they enjoyed the most as well as the chef's inspiration behind the dishes. Students were then asked to vote on their favorite dishes by placing a band they received when entering on a poster of the respective chef.

Students were happy to wait in line to both experience new cuisine and classics with a new twist. John-Wilson Jarret, senior in exercise science, said Chef Jarvi’s Indian marinated chicken and beef fajitas were his favorite. 

Colton Neemand, freshman in marine biology, said despite not knowing the event was happening, he enjoyed the smoked pork served with peach and Conecuh bacon collards on top of a rice griddlecake Chef Brian served.

Other students said they came specifically for the event through a post on Tiger Dining's Instagram.

“We come here a lot but we saw the stuff for the event so we definitely wanted to come,” Mary Davis, freshman who has not declared her major, said.

William Walker, assistant director for campus dining, said the event was an opportunity to highlight the chefs on campus and the passion for the food they all share. 

He said the event was an opportunity for students to meet the staff behind campus dining as well as being a new, fun experience for students and staff alike. Walker also highlighted that this was an opportunity for the chefs to give back to the students outside of normal operations.

Walker said he hopes to feature more events like this and the poker night, which took place earlier this week. Students also expressed their satisfaction with the new dining hall and desire to have more events and themed nights in the future.

Chef Cook ultimately won the competition with his black and blue gnocchi and a jumbo stuffed meatball served atop pasta pomodoro. The gnocchi consisted of a black pepper demi hangar steak served alongside blue cheese gnocchi and spinach. The meatball was stuffed with mozzarella and served atop pasta pomodoro.


Tyler Schmidt | News Writer

Tyler Schmidt, junior in culinary science, writes for The Plainsman news section. 


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