Culinology Team Wins RCA National Competition

Second Win in Three Years for SMSU

For the second time in the three-years they have competed, a team of SMSU Culinology students claimed the Research Chefs Association (RCA) Student Culinology Competition in Charlotte, N.C.  SMSU won the competition in 2011 and came in third in 2012.

The team was comprised of captain Abbey Filzen, sr., New Ulm, Minn.; Jordan Groeneweg, sr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.; Krystal Jochims, sr., Tabor, S.D.; and Erin Badzinski, soph., Kasson, Minn. The team made a “Chik’n Waffles” dish.

SMSU also had a second team compete. This is just the second time a university has qualified two teams for the RCA competition. Two teams from Clemson University qualified in 2012.  The second team included team captain Jeremiah Murphy, sr., Marshall, Minn.; Jason Bentley, jr., Shorewood, Minn.; Rich Lidstrom, sr., Marshall, Minn.; and Ross Kuchta, sr., Canby, Minn. 
This year’s category was a commercialized chicken entrée with two sides for a casual dining chain restaurant.  The dish was prepared and frozen, then brought to the event. The day of the competition, the SMSU teams prepared the same entrées and side dishes fresh on-site. The goal was to have the frozen entrees look and taste as close to the freshly-prepared gold standard entrees as possible.

“We’re very proud of what our students accomplished,” said Culinology Director Dr. Michael Cheng. “Having two teams qualify as finalists says a lot about their talent, and the many hours of practice that went into this.”