Buffalo State Students to Face Off in Interdisciplinary Cooking Competition

Students from Buffalo State University’s Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) and Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics (HND) departments are combining culinary efforts in the Interdisciplinary Iron Chef Competition on Tuesday, April 18, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Caudell Hall 218. The event is free and open to the campus.

Chartwells is providing the food for the competition intended to mimic the Food Network’s cooking show Iron Chef America, which is based on the Japanese cult sensation Iron Chef. Jeffrey Hirschfelt, director of Campus House, will serve as the master of ceremonies.

“We wanted to host this competition as a way for students to prepare a meal that fits specific dietary and swallowing-safety needs they may encounter in the real world,” said Anita Senthinathan, assistant professor of speech-language pathology, who teamed up with Elizabeth Hartz, lecturer of HND and clinical coordinator of the campus’s Nutrition Education Counseling Center (NECC). “The students are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in this challenging and fun competition.”

Five teams of five students each, a mix of SLP and HND majors, will create a dinner with limited ingredients for a fictitious patient who has a swallowing disorder—in less than an hour. The completed meal also must include specific cultural considerations.

“The students have to make a meal that would be appropriate for this patient while meeting nutritional and swallowing requirements and making it look and taste good,” Senthinathan said. “This is an important exercise because the resulting dishes have a huge impact on real patients’ lives, especially people with disabilities and those recovering from an illness. Food is such a huge part of our social and cultural fabric.”

From a health and dietetics perspective, Hartz said, “Interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming increasingly important for optimizing patient and client care, but we aren’t often given opportunities to explore this in an undergraduate setting. We want this event to engage students from each discipline so they can be more informed and go on to provide better care for patients with complicated needs. We see disconnects in our clinical rotations between the different professions, and we hope to close some of those gaps.”

At 1:00 p.m., a panel of judges composed of a faculty member from each department, a Chartwells representative, and Carol DeNysschen, dean of the School of the Professions and a registered dietitian, will choose the first-, second-, and third-place winners based on taste and adherence to appropriate SLP and HND recommendations.

“We hope that faculty, staff, and students will stop by to watch the competition,” Senthinathan said, adding that attendees can vote for the “Fan Favorite” award based on the visual appeal of the dishes. Light refreshments will be served.

“This event is really for everyone,” Hartz said. “It may even help someone better understand something a family member is going through.”

They said they hope to make this a yearly event and involve other departments.

“This is our first interdisciplinary collaboration,” Senthinathan said. “We’re excited to host an event based on popular culture and tie in many of the factors our students will need to consider when working with patients and clients in the future.”

Kwadwo Agyekum, an SLP graduate student, designed the logo for the competition T-shirts (inset).

Top photo by Jesse Steffan-Colucci, Buffalo State photographer.