Kimchi took center stage at the Bear Down Building on Sept. 26.
The finale cook-off event for the “Campus Kimchi Masters” scholarship contest brought out students, faculty and staff to observe the culmination of the month-long collaboration between the Department of East Asian Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies and the Korea Agro-Fisheries Food & Trade Corporation (aT Center Los Angeles). Contest winners received scholarships totaling $3,000.
In the weeks leading up to the main event, U of A students, staff, and faculty entered recipes featuring Korean kimchi—ranging from familiar to reimagined dishes—for a chance to be selected as a finalist to compete in the cook off at the main campus event.
This unique, hands-on cross-cultural exploration of K-Culture was covered by a local journalist in a feature story for the Tucson Sentinel.
The eight finalists were:
Arianne Law – Junior, Operations and Supply Chain Management & East Asian Studies
Ariel Heinrich – Junior, Microbiology, with Minors in East Asian Studies & Molecular and Cellular Biology
Hyunjin Yang – Junior, Exchange Student from Seoul National University, Sociology
Lily Nicole Jones – Junior, East Asian Studies & Religious Studies
Meagan Rausch – Freshman, Political Science & East Asian Studies
Seina Okamoto – Junior, International Student from Japan, Linguistics
Shu-Chien Yang – Graduate Student, East Asian Studies
Syriana Coronado – Freshman, Neuroscience and Cognitive Science & Molecular and Cellular Biology
The main event featured special talks by Dr. Wooje Lee from the World Institute of Kimchi, James Beard Award semifinalist Chef Ji Hye Kim and Chef Richard Park, as well as performances from U of A’s very own K-Pop dance team, UnderSkore.
During the highlight of the event—the cook off—the eight finalists whipped up their best kimchi recipes for a panel of judges that included Min Ho Kim, President of aT Center Los Angeles, our event speakers, Dr. Lee, Chef Kim, and Chef Park, and East Asian Studies Professors Sojung Chun, Sandra Park, Jieun Ryu, Joshua Schlachet and Sunyoung Yang.
The first-place scholarship of $1,500 went to Lily Jones. The second-place scholarship of $1,000 went to Syriana Coronado. And the third-place scholarship of $500 went to Arianne Law.