Malaysian students win US culinology challenge

The four members of Team Ali from Taylor’s University who won the 2019 Student Culinology Competition in the US with Dr Kuan Yau Hoong (centre), who mentored them throughout the five months.

TEAM Ali from Taylor’s University knocked out competitors to be declared champion in the 2019 Student Culinology Competition in the United States.

The team, comprising four final-year Bachelor of Science (Hons) Culinology students, beat teams from Southwest Minnesota State University and University of Guelph to clinch the coveted spot.

Taylor’s University Social Sciences and Leisure Management Faculty executive dean Prof Dr

A.R. Neethiahnanthan expressed delight over the achievement, and said the strong performance by

students was credit to their determination to stay the course and a reflection of the strength of the programme, the only one of its kind outside the US.

“This is the third time a team from Taylor’s University has been named champions in this prestigious student competition.

“Their spirit of excellence and willingness through the last five months is representative of the Taylor’s spirit, and an embodiment of why we were named the 14th best university in the world for the Hospitality and Leisure Management subject in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019 recently,” he said.

This year’s competition saw

the four students – Lee Chor Yang, Adrian Chua Sern Yi, Hii Wen Suog and Chiew Jun Kang – creating a clean labelled Kentucky-inspired food item suitable for a fast casual restaurant menu.

The four students spent time researching popular Kentucky dishes and after assessing the items, opted to work with a famous Kentucky food item – the traditional stew burgoo – for their entry.

Chiew, the team leader, said they wanted to attempt something unique with their entry and transformed the dish into a pie.

“We wanted to reimagine the dish and felt that a pie would be a good take.

“We made a sorghum pie crust and filled it with chicken burgoo, sriracha bell pepper gel and mash potatoes. The final touch was a spiced carrot puree.

“It turned out to be the best decision as the judges loved our pie crust and also shared their appreciation for the packaging that we developed,” he said.

Hearing the team’s name called out during the presentation ceremony, which took place at 4am Malaysian time, was a surreal moment for the team.

Reliving the moment, Chiew

said the team members were

exhilarated when they heard the announcer call out Team Ali during the event.

“It was a dream come true – this achievement was only possible, thanks to the strong camaraderie between all four of us.

“We were inspired by the theme and even named ourselves after a proud Kentucky native – Muham-mad Ali, who was born in Louisville. We wanted our product to pack a punch and leave an impact with the judges, and that’s what we ended up doing,” he said.

Team Ali beat contestants in the 12th edition of the competition, organised by the Research Chef Association to tap into the creative young minds in the field of food product development, and brought back the coveted trophy and US$2,500 (RM10,197).