Zags taste-test Iggy’s creations

Students linger near the pizza tables. They chat and laugh while waiting to taste each new creation while aromatic smells tantalize their taste buds. 

 Zag Dining's "Build a Better Pizza Taste Off" event occured Monday afternoon in Cataldo, with the goal being to find a custom pizza to feature on Iggy's new menu.

Four new student-created pizzas were presented during the Taste Off. Students in attendance tasted each pizza and voted for their favorite.

"So far, when we put one [pizza] down, it goes fast. We can barely keep up. People seem very excited about it," Sarah Clifford, unit-marketing specialist for Zag Dining, said Monday.

Thirty pizzas were cooked and ready to go out in roughly 45 minutes. Two-hundred and forty-two students voted and a verdict was doled out Wednesday, with junior Andrew Cataldo's nine veggie pizza deemed the winner. Mushrooms, black olive and broccoli were prevalent in Cataldo's winning dish.

Cataldo's recipe will appear as an Iggy's Pizza menu item within the week, with a name devised by the inventor.

"I tried all four, they are all good. No. 4 [third-finisher Kristen van der Zwet's pizza] is pretty good, No. 2 [Cataldo's] as well. I would probably choose No. 4," junior Kacei Conyers said. "They are all very delicious. It's a fun event, free pizza is great."

Conyers said she liked the thin crust better than the old pizzas, along with this, she said she would definitely order Iggy's pizza in the future since there are more vegetables on the new pizzas.

"I don't know where the ingredients come from. [I will] possibly [order Iggy's in the future], I don't really eat that much pizza," Grozak said, "It's good, it's easy way to get people to eat the pizzas."

"The pizza Taste Off is to highlight two things," said Parker Townley, student manager of sustainability for Zag Dinning. "It is to highlight Iggy's, which [has] new [flavors] this year. It's new service, the pizza they offer. They are coming up with new pizzas, with new types of pizza. So, we are trying to involve students in creating new kind of pizza that we will then offer. Second, we were planning to highlight the fact that we use Shepherd's Grain, that's where we get our wheat from, for the pizza, so the ingredients for the pizza come from local farms."

However, the trip was cancelled because there were not enough students signed up. Zag Dining is working to reschedule this trip for the future.

"We were planning to take students to look at the process that how the wheat was grown, processed and harvested and go to the pizza event where students actually eat something from that," Townley said.

"We are trying to get a little bit of publicity for the Iggy's pizza, make sure students are aware that Iggy's is the option that they can use that to get pizza. Just involve students in project, have a fun time I guess. It's free pizza, who doesn't want free pizza?" Townley said.