The college cook-off

Christopher Capozziello

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Undergraduate chefs took to their sauté pans on a February night in Commons, where more than a thousand students, faculty, and staff had assembled for the seventh annual Final Cut competition. Student teams from each of the 12 residential colleges (Berkeley is shown here) were given 60 minutes to create an appetizer and an entrée using this year’s ingredients: Alaskan cod, chicken, beans, mushrooms, and olive oil. While the teams labored, the Silliman and Trumbull mascots (a salamander and a bull) cheered on their colleges, and onlookers browsed and noshed among a dozen or so vendors’ booths offering free food samples. At the end of the event, a panel including Yale College dean Jonathan Holloway ’95PhD, President Peter Salovey ’86PhD, and Ming Tsai ’86—celebrity chef and television personality—delivered its critiques. Silliman, captained by Hallie Meyer ’16, took home the top prize. “It’s a great celebration of cooking and food on Yale’s campus,” said Nicole De Santis ’15, who had competed in the contest as a sophomore. “We have a lot of people who are interested in cooking and restaurants, and this gives the whole campus a chance to appreciate that.”

See the next page for one of the Silliman team’s prize-winning recipes.