The Food Literacy Project has cooked up various ideas to help students make the most of humdrum HUDS food.  At Kirkland, the servery now features a list of recipes (which include only ingredients available in the dining hall) designed by participants of the Kirkland House Top Chef competition—which is part of a larger FLP initiative—last Thursday.

"It can show students that they can make really incredible masterpieces with just the food served every day," said Cassandra B. Snow '10, the Kirkland FLP representative.

Black bean dip with pita chips, chicken wrap stuffed with peanut soy sauce…those are just some of what students will be able to churn out using only ingredients available in the servery.

"HUDS has a fantastic [variety] of ingredients available for students," said Robert B. Schaaf '11, a participant of the competition. "And if you know what to do with them then you can make delicious dishes."

The winning recipes were chosen by four judges, who—while chewing and nodding—graded the dishes in terms of creativity, taste, and presentation on a scale of one to five. Erin E. Walczewski and Luke Walczewski, both tutors in Kirkland House, were ultimately crowned "the top chef."

"Winning is a little awesome," said Erin Walczewski, who laughed, kissed her husband, and danced in the dining hall after hearing the competition results .

Transforming a Bruschetta into an entrée by adding marinated chicken breast and finely chopped capicola, the Walczewskis said that they had not decided to participate in the competition until that morning. This Wednesday, they will participate in an Iron Chef Harvard competition at Annenberg, which will include Top Chefs from other Houses.

"Oh I love this competition. I mean look at that. The morale of the students. Everybody is kind of working together," said John A. Rohanna, customer service manager of the Eliot and Kirkland Dining Services. "It's just a lot of energy going in here you know. They all look like young professionals, running through, grabbing this, grabbing that."

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.