Rosen students cook for a cause

Rosen students are making money off their culinary skills pre-graduation, and their efforts will soon be nationally televised.

The Rosen College Student Forum beat the UCF rugby team last week at the "Dining with the Dean" cook-off, a filmed culinary competition sponsored by Brigham Young University that required each team to whip up a three-course meal for the dean to taste-test.

The television program is used to promote Brigham Young football, but the school comes bearing gifts: a $3,000 reward for the winning team, and $2,000 of the prize must go to a non-profit organization of the team's choice.

The Rosen College Student Forum is donating the funds to Children's Miracle Network, a cause that UCF supports through several student organizations.

Alexis Dempsey, Rosen cook-off competitor and junior hospitality management major, said that she hopes the televised program will bring light to CMN and the Rosen College.

"We thought it would be a great charity to donate to because we work all-year around to support it and raise money for it," Dempsey said.

The remaining $1,000 will go to the college itself, although no final decisions have been made as to how it will be appropriated. Dempsey said that the student forum hopes to use the money for the creation of a culinary competition team at Rosen, which will be spearheaded by freshman restaurant management major, Alex Lewine.

Lewine said that he was unaware that the team was looking into using the funds for his tentative club but said that the prospect was exciting. Two of the three winning courses were recipes by Lewine, who competed in culinary competitions prior to "Dining with the Dean."

"I felt a little more pressure than I should have, because the experience was like other competitions, but it was really different because it was televised," Lewine said. "You have that head rush going through you that whole time."

The cook-off was filmed in the Rosen apartment of one of the competitors. Shortly before the competition began, both teams were given guidelines: They had to use an item from the apartment, onions could not be part of any recipe and they had to stay within a $30 budget.

Rosen College Dean Abraham Pizam, who served as the judge for the competition, said that he was impressed by the culinary skill of both teams. The judging process was anonymous. Pizam was given two plates at a time, one concocted by Rosen and the other by the rugby team.

The dean ended up being partial to Rosen's appetizer and main courses but preferred the rugby team's dessert item. Rosen's menu included a baby arugula salad in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing, apple cider chicken with mashed potato pancakes and asparagus and a raspberry cheesecake puff pastry.

The cook-off will air Sept. 23 before the UCF at Brigham Young University game on BYUtv. According to Dempsey, "Dining with the Dean" has an average of 50 million viewers per episode.

BYU students work in conjunction with LENZ-Works, a Utah-based film company, to produce the show. The "Dining with the Dean" crew films at colleges whose football teams will be playing against Brigham Young to increase excitement for upcoming games.

Lewine said he wants the show to bring hype to not only Knights football, but the Rosen College, as well.

"Rosen is probably the most successful school of hospitality management in the U.S.," Lewine said. "This means that we can get our name out there."