In its annual Food Tent Wars, the Culinary Arts Program gave Delta College students a little bit of everything to taste.
From kabobs to grilled cheese to lumpia, the “friendly competition” as Culinary Arts student Paulette Flores said, brings something new to the campus community every spring.
The Culinary Arts Program has put together a food tent war competition for the past four years where the Chef Instructor Mark Berkner lets students come up with their own menu ideas and make them reality.
It’s similar to a real-life opportunity to see what it takes to run a business.
Students are placed in groups and must come up with a theme for their tent. The group members are in charge of prep lists, food costs and setting up for the two-day event held in the Dolores Huerta Plaza in the middle of campus.
“We started prep on Monday,” Culinary Arts student Jarrod Zollin, who was part of The Cheesy Pig said. “Some of us arrived at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday to be set up by 10:30 a.m. and open at 11 a.m.”
The preparation took a lot of work, but when everything came together and the “doors opened” the competition started.
“It’s nice to see a Delta program put such an event to bring together students on campus,” said Joel Colisao, Delta student.
This semester there were four booths:
Taco Constitution: Tacos with a twist including chicken mole, vegetarian mu-shu and grilled steak tacos. The group also had a mango sorbet with Tajin and Chamoy for a bit of spice.
The Cheesy Pig: A fan favorite, included grilled cheese sandwiches loaded with pork, bacon and house-made barbecue sauce. The booth also featured mac & cheese where patrons could load it with pork and barbecue sauce, as well as house-made lemonade and freshly-baked cookies.
Kiss My Kabob: Grilled chicken, grilled veggie and grilled fruit kabobs as well as fruit smoothies and snow cones, which were fairly popular due to the weather.
Kain Tayo: Translates to Let’s Eat, provided fried beef or veggie lumpia with a side of rice, banana lumpia for dessert and a fresh mango beverage.
After two days of competing, the results were in for the winner, which was selected based on food sales. The Cheesy Pig was named the 2019 Food Tent War Champions.