Put head-to-head, eight teams consisting of Millersville community members faced off in a reality television-based culinary challenge, Iron Chef, on March 17 at 6 p.m.
Beginning on campus in 2010, this yearly event challenges teams with a must-use ingredient to be incorporated into their dishes. For 2026, the eight competing teams had to incorporate scrapple into their dishes in any way possible. With a challenging ingredient, teams had to not only adapt to figuring out their dishes, but also learn to work together cohesively to get the job done.
Livestreamed by Millersville University Television, spectators watched online and in-person at The Upper Deck as teams had one hour to cook and plate their dishes. Throughout this duration, participants got to watch teams, but also had their own fun. Campus Recreation hosted a challenge to guess how many times Chef John Johnson changed his jacket throughout the event.
“So chefs get dirty in the kitchen, obviously, right? With some of our job, as you go up through the restaurants and stuff, is to be on the floor and come out and see folks if they ask for you and stuff like that, so you got to change your jacket. So, as they started making different jackets and colored jackets, then I started, you know, sort of collecting those,” Johnson said. “But for me, it worked out because I love people, I love to talk, and people notice that, so they talk to me. Then I get to meet new people and talk to people.”
Interestingly, this was a tradition that became a spectacle as students and faculty gradually began noticing these changes.
“The first several years that we worked with him from Campus Rec, he didn’t even say he was doing it,” said Allison Yarrow, director of Campus Recreation. “So then starting last year, we put a tally together and started collecting the responses from people of like, guess how many, because of it, like otherwise, he was just doing it just to be him and the chef.”
Johnson later revealed in a livestream interview that he owns a total of 26 jackets, which he brought to the event, wearing 13 of them throughout the night.
While spectators enjoyed that interaction, participants worked hard at ensuring they could achieve success. Though teams faced different issues and delays, participants worked on improving their communication and teamwork. That meant there were hurdles to overcome, as first-time participant Dr. Miguel Pereira noted.
“To delegate tasks to everybody, I would probably say is probably the biggest [challenge], because you’re so used to cooking by yourself, probably in a kitchen, that when you’re cooking in a team with three other people, it could be challenging,” Pereira said. “But that was probably the biggest challenge that we ran into, was just learning how to work with each other in a small area kitchen.”
Pereira’s team, “Rec Mans with Miguel,” went on to win the People’s Choice Award.
“The People’s Choice Award was actually pretty sweet to win that. It’s just really cool that a lot of people thought that our dish was the best particularly for that,” Pereira said. “So I’m proud of the whole team, incorporating what we did, you know, in that particular dish, people seeing that, and people voting on it was really cool.”
On the podium, Turning Beef SGA won with 166 points. In second place, the Flavor Savors received 163 points. Mock Trial Team 2 and Mock Trial Team 3 tied for third place with 160 points each.
In the end, the Iron Chef Competition committee gets to observe and watch as these participants put their determination and creativity to the test. For students and faculty to be rewarded for challenging themselves, the campus further encourages out-of-the-box thinking and collaboration, which is something the judges enjoy observing each year.
“I think just watching as they’re working at the tables with each other, and then getting the ability to come up and actually present. You know, it’s pretty obvious that quite a few watch both Iron Chef and other shows,” said Millersville University Police Chief Pete Anders, a returning judge. “So I like how they come up with the names for their dishes and then also describe it, which is really neat.”
Iron Chef is annually hosted through Campus Recreation and University Dining, which allow any students, staff, and faculty to register to compete. For more information, visit @mucampusrec on Instagram or contact campus.recreation@millersville.edu for questions.
