‘Soy You Think You Can Cook’ finals announced

Krupali Desai

“The Soy Sistas” won during the final round of “Soy You Think You Can Cook” on Tuesday.

Sponsored by The Soyfoods Council, the event was held at Iowa State for the first time to have a culinary challenge on campus.

“It gave students the opportunity to work with soy products they normally wouldn’t use, like the silken or creamy tofu or texturized soy protein and soy milks,” said Erica Beirman, lecturer of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and person in charge of the event.

Students competing began cooking in the Sun Room of Memorial Union at 12:45 p.m., presented their prepared dishes at 2:05 p.m. and awards were presented at 3 p.m.

The “Soy Sisters” – Cassie Miller, Amanda Pudlik and Elise Fiscus, all three of whom are seniors in culinary sciences and were awarded a prize of $420.

Runners-up were the “Krazy Kooks” at 2nd place who won $240 and “Soy Beautiful Soy Delicious” and “Soy Random” came at 3rd place with a tie and were awarded $120 split within the two groups.

“Soy You Think You Can Cook” was held during the biggest recruitment week of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, which was attended by students from all over Iowa, said Breanna Wetzler, program assistant for the department.

Sammy Mila, senior in culinary science and Alex Sash, junior in food science of “Soy Random” made a seasoned and layered sandwich. “I’m a fan of sweet food and [Alex] is a fan of spicy food so we put a sweet and spicy touch to it,” said Mila.

Although they had technical issues with the stove being out for 10 or 15 minutes, they were in time to present their entree.

“Being the first year, there were a few glitches,” Beirman said. “But we overcame those and I think it went off really well.”

Beirman said they would love to make this a part of HSFN day, the recruitment day for high schools. “We’d like to make it the end-of-the-day activity so that they can see the fun side of food,” she said.