This past Thursday afternoon, on March 14, the annual three-day elimination style student cooking tournament, reminiscent of Food Network’s “Chopped,” took place at the Wilkerson Dining Center, and over nine teams competed.  

The premise of the competition is based off different teams of chefs facing off against each other to prepare a dish for a panel of judges. These judges are responsible for tasting each dish and scoring them, effectively deciding which chef prepared the best dish and deserves to advance into the next round.  

This year, there were nine different teams comprised of two to four chefs who are students at the University of North Dakota. The finalists were the Spice Girls, Smith Queens, and Taste of Ceylon.  

Thanks to the generous donations of the events sponsors, Guiding Stars, Association of Residence Halls, and Sysco, this event was made possible. There was even a lucrative prize pool available for the events finalists. This year’s prizes consisted of high-end kitchen appliances including a Ninja Skillet, Ninja Blender, and Food Processor. Every finalist had the opportunity of claiming one of these prizes, however, the first and second place finishers had first choice regarding which of the prizes they chose.  

For the final round of competition, chefs were tasked with presenting a dinner entrée to a panel of three judges who were faculty members at UND. This year’s panel of judges included the likes of Dr. Art Malloy, current Vice President for Student Affairs, Cassie Gerhardt, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, and Chris Suriano, Director of Wellness and Health Promotion. 

The judges rated each dish out of a possible net score of 150 points, with 50 points allocated to each judge. According to Dr. Art Malloy, each dish “tasted like it could’ve come straight from a recipe” and was packed with flavor.  

This year’s champion, with a net score of 140 points, was the culinary team Taste of Ceylon. Spice Girls were the runners up with 110 points, and Smith Queens took third with a respectable net score of 93 points.  

After the event ended, the head chef for the winning team, Ahsan Fernando, offered some insight regarding preparing his team’s winning dish. Paying homage to his home country, Sri Lanka, Fernando’s team prepared a skirt steak utilizing traditional cooking techniques for the judges. They utilized a variety of different ingredients to bring out a distinctive flavor, however, Fernando thanked their “secret ingredient” elephant garlic, for bringing all the right flavors together within the dish.  

Looking forward into the future for the duration of the 2024 academic year, this year’s champion, Taste of Ceylon, can proudly tout themselves as the “Best Chefs” at UND.  

Daniel Silva is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].