PURCHASE, N.Y. -- After a thrilling cook-off, two teams of student chefs from The Culinary Institute of America are one step closer to Super Bowl glory via PepsiCo.
Matthew F. Johnson & Cullen Folks and Marie Taccino & Olivia DeSalvo have advanced to the finals of PepsiCo's “Game Day Grub Match,” a unique culinary competition in search of the next great Super Bowl party dish. Each team will now compete in Arizona--the site of Super Bowl XLIX--to determine who will be named the first-ever “Game Day Grub Match” champion.
The winner will be crowned on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Taste of the NFL’s annual “Party with a Purpose.” The winning team will earn tickets to Super Bowl XLIX and receive $5,000 in scholarship money.
Each team incorporated PepsiCo food and beverage products as ingredients to create unique Super Bowl dishes. The finalists are:
- Matthew F. Johnson from Duluth, Minn., and Cullen Folks from Atlanta who created Tostitos Chipotle Chicken Tacos. This dish is served in a grilled flour tortilla with Tostitos Salsa- and Pepsi-marinated chicken and sides of a Sabra Guacamole-based salsa verde and Sierra Mist red cabbage slaw.
- Marie Taccino from Dallas and Olivia DeSalvo from Broomall, Pa., who created Naked Chia Cherry Lime Pork Sliders, topped with Pepsi-candied bacon. The dish is served on a homemade Quaker Oats and Fritos biscuit with a side of Muller Tropicana Slaw.
“It has been impressive and inspiring to watch these promising young chefs from The Culinary Institute of America use PepsiCo products to create two amazing dishes. They challenged themselves and used our brands in innovative ways to create great flavors that would be a hit at any Super Bowl party,” said PepsiCo corporate executive research chef Stephen Kalil. “PepsiCo has played a starring role at Super Bowl parties for generations, and these Game Day Grub Match recipes are going to take football party menus to the next level.”
PepsiCo will allow fans to watch the teams compete and follow their road to the Super Bowl starting Jan. 20 by visiting www.gamedaygrubmatch.com and by subscribing to PepsiCo’s Twitter channel @PepsiCo, keeping an eye on #GameDayGrubMatch.
The first round of “Game Day Grub Match” took place at The Culinary Institute of America’s Hyde Park, N.Y., campus, where four student teams were given access to a variety of products from PepsiCo’s food and beverage portfolio. They were challenged to incorporate at least three PepsiCo products into a Super Bowl inspired recipe. Food Network star and CIA alum Anne Burrell hosted the culinary competition. The dishes were evaluated by an all-star judging panel comprised of New York Jets’ Pro Bowl center Nick Mangold, James Beard Award winner and CIA alum David Burke, The Culinary Institute of America’s senior director of food and beverage operations Waldy Malouf, and PepsiCo’s Kalil.
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