Veggies Steal Spotlight in Culinary Contest

A creamy bed of ivory lentils, topped with seared root vegetables, and drizzled with a cider gastrique stole the hearts of students and judges at Winthrop House’s vegetarian cook-off last night.

Four teams competed to create environmentally-conscious and delicious dishes from a table overflowing with produce that ranged from parsnips as thick as a forearm to piles of feathery-headed fennel. The student chefs also incorporated ingredients from a mystery box that contained apples, ivory lentils, bok choy, and organic tofu.

Dishes ranged from coconut lentil soup with tofu croutons to a bed of sauteed greens topped with local apples and organic tofu.

A panel of Harvard University Dining Services Managers and executives, as well as students in attendance, pronounced Alexandra Perloff-Giles ’11 and Madeleine E. Raffel ’11 the winners of the contest. The event’s top dishes will be featured in Winthrop’s Chef’s Choice nights. Perloff-Giles is also Crimson staff writer, and Raffel is a Crimson business editor.

Before the cooking began, an unruffled contestant Lillian L. Erlinger ’10 rattled off her team’s plan: in the works, an “Asian slaw with fried lentil balls and garlicky, pan-seared broccoli,” but if all else failed, there was a plan B: “a spiced lentil apple curry with curry yogurt and sauteed apples.”

As the cooking began, Bianca A. Verma ’10, Erlinger’s teammate, chopped up onions. “There may not be cumin, but other than that, it’s going well,” she said.

Representatives from the Food Literacy Project and the Undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program organized the contest after a debate on their open list about the selection of vegetarian options on the HUDS menu.

“We decided to bridge the idea of sustainability and vegetarian food,” said Winthrop EcoREP Jonathan B. Steinman ’10. “Most vegetarian food has a smaller carbon footprint than meat-based food.” Steinman is also a Crimson sports writer.

Serie Demelo, a HUDS general manager, emphasized that all the ingredients used at the event are normally served in the dining hall. She also said that leftover ingredients would be incorporated into the next day’s meals to reduce waste.

“I’m really glad they’re accommodating vegans,” said Amary K. Wiggin ’09, a vegan who voted in favor of a coconut lentil soup. Wiggin said that the current vegan offerings in the dining hall are “decent.”

According to Steinman, the competition was intended to “highlight to people that a diet with relatively less meat is a diet that’s easier on the planet.”

—Staff writer Lingbo Li can be reached at lingboli@fas.harvard.edu.