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The University of Illinois recently competed in the Solar Decathlon hosted by the Department of Energy on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall, winning second place in the University’s second entry in the contest. The competition, running from Oct. 8 to Oct. 21, tested participants from around the world in ten categories, ranging from architecture to overall power metering. The decathlon, however, required excellence in more categories than engineering and design alone, also including cooking and hospitality in its contest of sustainability. Katharine Bayer, graduate student at the University, said, “We wanted people to be able to feel like they could live in something right at this moment.” With this ideal in mind, contestants pushed the boundaries of sustainable living by demonstrating the ability to turn their solar-powered house into a solar-powered home.

As part of the Home Entertainment category, participants in the decathlon were required to host a full dinner party for eight people, and the University’s effort went far beyond what students might expect in a contest seemingly focused on the hard sciences. Bayer and her team prepared a full, six-course meal for their guests from schools in California, Minnesota and Puerto Rico. Focusing on local Illinois flavors and products, the meal began with hors d’oeuvres of vegetable sushi with tiny green sprouts. For appetizers, the team prepared polenta fritters with ingredients from the Moore Family Farm and cheese from the local Prairie Fruit Farms, complimented by dried cherry tart compote. A butternut squash soup with homemade guancale lardons (a fatty bacon) followed before an impressive entrée of Triple S Farms pastured poultry confit. Additionally, a vegetarian option of root vegetable pot pie with corn and soy succotash, roasted beets and braised collared greens was offered. The after-dinner salad was a julienne apple variety with Blue Moon Farm arugula and Prairie Fruit krotovena cheese. To top off the succulent fare, Bayer prepared a rustic pear galette with aged chevre. Using as many local and organic ingredients as possible, the team achieved what Bayer described as “a home-cooked feeling that went along with [the team’s] vernacular architecture.”

Cooking in a cutting-edge sustainable, solar-powered house did not seem to offer many unusual challenges, despite for all its unique qualities. “All the appliances that we have are commercially available,” Bayer said. “For the most part, you cook exactly the same as you would cook in a regular house.” The Illinois team felt that their house served particularly well due to its comfortable atmosphere and easily flowing space. Cooking in the Solar Decathlon however, was not without its challenges. “It was a competitive situation,” Bayer said. Teams had only two hours in their house to prepare the substantial meal they made.

In all, the University of Illinois Solar Decathlon team excelled in all fields, and the dinner party was no exception. The cooking and home entertainment section was “a really fun part of the competition where we got to meet other team members” and share experiences and knowledge, added Bayer. “The different categories created a nice juxtaposition between technology ... and currently marketable positions,” she continued. “Hopefully when the house gets back here, I’ll have the chance to do some actual cooking all the way through,” said Bayer.