SMU sophomore Charlotte Anderson sampling foods from the SMU Iron Chef competition at RFOC Wednesday night. (SPENCER EGGERS/The Daily Campus)

Pans were sizzling, and students were lining up to taste three distinct flavors.

The SMU Iron Chef took place from 5 to 8 p.m. March 31 in the Real Food on Campus Dining Hall at Umphrey Lee.

Kami Gantt, marketing program manager for SMU Dining Services, said three teams representing Dallas-area schools were each tasked to create a six-menu meal representing three food categories.

She said each school was  paired with an SMU culinary liaison who provided them with guidance.

The schools participating in the competition were Collin County Community College, which made Asian dishes, El Centro Community College, which made Middle Eastern dishes and The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institute of Dallas made Italian dishes.

Gantt said each team had a budget of $2,000 and were instructed to create two ounce items that would feed 900 people. She said the day of the event teams learned they had to use a special ingredient, which was blood orange in at least one menu item.

She said as people entered the dining facility they were given three tickets, one for best theme carried out, best presentation and best use of special ingredient. Each person voted on which school did the best in each category and then the ballots were counted.

Each winner of the competition gets a set of chef knives that are engraved with the Iron Chef logo on it and the event that they won in.

Gantt said the idea for the event had been tossed around, but it wasn’t until December that planning started to take fruition. She said the event was originally thought of to be a kick-off to Spring Break, but since some of the schools had different Spring Breaks things had to be changed.

“It was a great big team effort to planning this event,” she said.

She said participants were able to come in Tuesday at 3 p.m. and do the preparation work and then they came in yesterday at 10 a.m. to start cooking the dishes.

Michele Brown, pastry chef professor at CCCC said each student chosen had a “distinct strength.”

“The entire planning of the menu and the design of the meal was entirely student driven. Myself and professor Cheryl Lewis acted as their sous chefs,” she said.

Freshman dance major Katy Samford, said the event was a good idea.

“It brought everyone together,” she said. “The only thing I would suggest is to serve larger portions or serving on one plate, otherwise I thought everything was great.”

“Personally I like the Italian, I’m not very adventurous. Italian is a neutral mean that everyone is used to,” she said.

Before the night was over each school had won an award. The award for best presentation was awarded to CCCC, best use of special ingredients was given to El Centro and the best theme was given to the Art Institute.