All the participants of the FUSION Global Cooking Challenge got together for a group shot after the winners were announced. Photo credit: Ashlee Polarek
Colanders hung from the ceiling and food from all around the world was showcased at the FUSION Global Cooking Challenge hosted by the International Center Friday, Feb. 28 in Adams lounge, kicking off International Student Awareness Month, which will continue throughout March.
Eight teams were broken into two categories, international and fusion, and prepared dishes for guests to taste and vote on, according to International Center intern Autumn Dickens, a senior English major. The dishes served included desserts, salads and entrees from Africa, Belarus, Mexico, China and more.
“It was fun to see international and American students come together,” Dickens said. “Cooking is a powerful thing, especially when it comes to uniting people.”
The Mosaic Mamacitas team, which included senior psychology major Roxanne Ramirez and leadership graduate student Tania Zakharchenko, made Olivier salad, a Belarus side dish which blends chicken, peas, eggs and other various ingredients.
“It’s not about winning. It’s about getting to know different cultures,” Ramirez said.
The Mamacitas’ team motto, as displayed on its table, read, “Internationalism; rather than [being] looked at as a melting pot that is blended, we view it as multicultural mosaic with various ingredients that keep their individual characteristics while interconnecting.”
The Taste of TESOL team was composed of students in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages program. The team presented three dishes: “Guess What,” “Picasso” and “Chicken Sandwiches.” Guess What was a mystery dish, served in an effort to explain a game they use to teach English to international students.
“I like the competition because it connects people from different cultures, especially though food, and it teaches them teamwork,” said Taste of TESOL team member Josh Xie, a TESOL graduate student.
After the judges collected the final results, the favorites of each category were announced. The international crowd favorite was team Asian Invasion and the fusion crowd favorite was the Fusionistas. Team Hamburgulars received an honorable mention.
The judges’ choice, however, was Yellowstone. The team had served a triple-layer cake, blending both American and international foods to design a Chinese flag.
Yellowstone won first prize, which was a basket full of cooking supplies and a $25 gift card to Applebee’s. Other prizes included smaller baskets of cooking-related goodies.
ISAM aims to tell the stories of foreign students at Azusa Pacific.
The next ISAM event will be a night market on Wednesday, March 5 on Cougar Walk after Kaleo chapel, where students can sample food from around the world. ISAM will host another event March 7 that will focus on awareness for international women.