On Friday, April 17, the Cooking with a Boxer series partnered with Pacific’s Filipino Culture Club to host their second monthly cooking competition over Zoom.
Since the beginning of Spring semester, students have been actively participating in the Cooking with a Boxer series. Every Tuesday, the Pacific Recreation Instagram account highlights one student or group of students that prepare a specific meal. The posts include the recipe, ingredients and a demonstrational video from the students. Every month, there is a themed competition with a required ingredient, time limit and judging criteria for creativity. Anyone is able to participate, whether it be students, faculty or staff.
“Every student is different, and oftentimes it’s hard to reach different organizations on campus,” Hiefield said. “Because of COVID, different people have been getting involved, like different sports teams, and they are sharing their excitement with their teammates.”
Facilitator Mallory Hiefield’s idea when creating this series was to get students engaged and dive into the popularity of cooking that was realized during their time in quarantine. She was particularly excited to pair with Pamilya Ko!, Pacific’s Filipino Culture Club because it was the first time an organization had reached out to collaborate. She was able to share another weekly recipe video of the dish the club wanted to make for their Turon tournament which seemed to increase participation in the cook off.
“It was a win-win situation because they needed help running a cook off event and we could help them advertise it/run it since we’ve done past cook offs,” Hiefield said. “I would love to partner with more clubs in the future because it brings more people together from different areas across campus and is also a chance to spotlight the club and attract new members for them.”
Sophomore Kamalani Manner, a student judge for the competition, feels that this program gives students the opportunity to get out and do things, especially during COVID.. She was excited to pair with the Filipino club as well because of the friendly change it brought to the competition.
“It was exciting seeing a lot of new faces. Pairing with the club was fun, as I got to learn how to make Turon as well as watching everyone make and present it in their own way,” Manner said. “I’m definitely looking forward to doing it again.”
The winners of the competition were Jazz Burns, Reyn Miyagawa and Quentin Gonzalez. Miyagawa saw members of the Filipino club promoting the competition in the UC, and he figured it would be fun to try with his teammate. Pairing up with the Filipino club made Miyagawa feel closer to his home state of Hawaii, and he felt that the cultural aspect made the competition more inviting.
“My favorite part about competing was being able to try something new because I have never made this dish before, nor am I a good cook,” Miyagawa said. “I also really enjoyed being able to participate in this competition alongside my close friends.”
Moving forward, the future of the series has various possible paths, as COVID-19 restrictions continue to change. Hiefield is hopeful that the series will be able to take place in person, and students are eagerly awaiting more chances to participate in the coming semester.
Follow the Pacific University Intramurals and Recreation Instagram @pacu_rec. — Chandler Fleming
Photo: Freshman Hunter Atagi, the winner of the very first Cooking with a Boxer Competition, prepared his version of turon for the competition on Friday, April 16th. Photo courtesy of Hunter Atagi.
Major: Multimedia
Hometown: Parker, Colorado
Hobbies: Lacrosse, volleyball, cleaning, organizing, working for Dutch Bros
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