Faculty House Wins Judge's Choice from Chef Robert Irvine

Faculty House was invited to participate in this year's Battle of the Dining Halls, an event hosted by Columbia Dining. Faculty House has quickly become a student favorite since introducing a student dining lunch program in the Fall of 2021 in partnership with Columbia Dining.

Columbia Dining's Battle of the Dining Halls is a campus cooking showdown between the student dining halls. Teams must present a dish based on the event theme. This year’s theme was Battle of the Boroughs, a celebration of the city’s diverse food scene. Each unit picked a borough of New York and prepared a dish inspired by their selection, also drawing from the culinary team’s own background, training and creativity.

The event features a special celebrity guest and panel of student judges who rate each dish based on execution, appearance and taste. This year's celebrity guest was Chef Robert Irvine.

Faculty House prepared a bibimbap that blended this traditional Korean dish with flavors from the Caribbean heritage of Faculty House Executive Chef Leo Michel. The bibimbap, which included oxtail, shrimp, and jerk chicken, was served with a hibiscus fruit punch. 

Columbia Dining's event was hailed as the "event of the year" and was attended by over 700 undergraduate students. In addition to participating in the culinary competition, the Event Management team supported planning logistics, audio, visual and lighting for the event itself.