Members of the Dallas Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts pass out Middle Eastern food during the Iron Chef competition Thursday evening at Umph. (Sidney Hollingsworth/The Daily Campus)

Students gathered at Umphrey Lee to get a taste of Korean and Middle Eastern food for the annual Iron Chef competition on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Two teams from Art Institute and Le Cordon Bleu competed for “Best Menu” and “Best Use of Special Ingredient.” They were judged by students and a panel of three judges: Julie Wiksten, associate vice president for campus services, Carla Scott, special events planner, and Guy Stovall, a first year student.

The dining hall was transformed into a cooking arena, with an ornate display in the center and well-presented cultural decorations.

The judges sat on an elevated platform, judging the various foods as the competing chefs explained their creations.

The staff at Umphrey Lee unveiled the secret ingredient this morning at 10 a.m. It ended up being salsify, a white root vegetable that is part of the sunflower family. It is popular in Belgium, Italy, the UK and France.

Some people say it tastes like oysters and other say artichoke. The teams also had to incorporate dried papaya into one of their dishes. The challenge was to incorporate those exotic tastes into ethnic cuisine, while staying true to the traditional ethnic flavors and crafting a creative and appetizing menu.

Le Cordon Bleu provided the Middle Eastern menu. It included paprika hummus and baba ganoush, chicken shwarma, falafel, tabbouleh, tomato-cucumber salad and baklava.

The Art Institute served the Korean menu. It included chap chae, grilled Korean flank steak, Korean pancakes, sticky rice, Korean pickled cucumbers and persimmon punch. Chap chae is a cold Asian noodle salad.

The chefs explained each item as they gave them to the students, culturing students in cuisines of other cultures. It was a new experience for most, as they tried new foods and decided whether or not they liked these foreign cuisines.

“Everything was presented very nicely, but the portions were kind of small,” sophomore Eric Alt said.

At the end of the night, the award for “Best Use of Special Ingredient” went to the Art Institute’s cuisine and “Best Menu” went to Le Cordon Bleu’s Middle Eastern menu.

“It was an interesting concept. As a food enthusiast, this was a wonderful opportunity to try new things,” sophomore Natalija Gajic said.