Culinary Clash Resumes Food Fights at the Luce Restaurant
By Julie Zigoris
After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, City College’s Culinary Clash is returning March 14, 21 and 28 to the Luce Restaurant at the InterContinental Hotel, San Francisco, and the three nights of dinners are already sold out. “This is an amazing opportunity for our students to take over a high-end restaurant alongside an executive chef,” said Culinary Arts Department Chair Keith Hammerich. Six students will prepare their tasting menus at Luce to compete for cash prizes on three consecutive Mondays. “You can’t ask for a better experience for our students,” Hammerich said. In 2019, City College won the Grand Prize in the Culinary Clash, beating out students from across California and in Mexico to secure top honors.
A two-person team will compete each evening with a three-course tasting menu of their own creation. Special guest judges, including Luce Restaurant head chef Rogelio Garcia, will rate their cuisine. Napa Valley’s Hoopes Vineyard will serve as the official wine sponsor for the event, offering varietals to accompany the tasting menus. The event is a fundraiser for the college’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies scholarship fund, and tickets are available to the public for $50. The Culinary Clash has raised over $150,000 for scholarships across the United States and in Mexico at participating InterContinental Hotels. The competing City College chefs include: Tina Tian, Joshua Roberts, Kannanuth Lert-ariyaphokhin, Cassandra Tran, Rochean Chatman and Alexander Li.