Everything Matcha: The Night Kellogg Turned Green
- Cathy Campo
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
By: Ayaka Utashiro
On "Everything Matcha Night," we left a very GREEN mark on a tiny corner of culinary history at Kellogg.
In one night, we went through 1.5 kg of matcha—a finely ground green tea powder made from Japanese tea leave—thanks to 27 cooks behind 18 dish entries and a crowd of matcha lovers on a mission: take one bite of everything, then vote.
This was a cooking face off, a matcha themed competition curated by Japan Club. If you saw a Japan Club member running around at the hub with a bag of culinary grade matcha powder from Japan, mission code green was on.
Out of 53 sacred votes, these were the honors of the night.
First, the prize categories:
Savory: Matcha Pasta, by chefs Nivedita Sundararajan (2Y '26) and Deyasini Sanyal (2Y '26)
Sweets: Matcha Cream Puffs, by chefs JaeYong Ju (MMM '27), Irina Liu (2Y '27), Liwen Xu (MMM '27), and Grace Shao (MMM '27)
Drink: Tea Ceremony, by chefs Bruno Enachev (2Y '26) and Zihao Chen (2Y '27)
And then, our badges of honor:
Best Aesthetics: Matcha Cake, by chef Allison Sheehan (1Y '26)
Most Creative: Matcha Idlis, by chefs Saswati Mishra (2Y '26) and Anjali Garg (2Y '26)
Matcha Shines: Matcha Ice Cream, by chef Aaditya Venkateswaran (JV of Sneha Basu, 2Y '27)
I'll hand it to Camila Thome (2Y ’26) to describe what the night felt like:
“I was extremely impressed with the creativity of the dishes and drinks, and the quality. I did not know we were among chefs in business school! The cultural richness of the dishes also really stood out, with thoughtful fusions between Japanese flavors and other cuisines. I'm a matcha lover, so the event was literally heaven to me. The competition recognized a few people, but honestly everyone was a winner, especially the ones eating it! It was amazing to share all this with friends, and special kudos to everyone that made the event happen. Definitely an amazing experience.”
The legendary fusion entries Camila mentions included hummus, idlis, chicken pasta, curry, lassi, and soup. Savory matcha is definitely an acquired taste, but somehow it unlocked a whole new set of taste buds for us.
The Dish on Our Chefs
Check out how our esteemed chefs pushed the culinary boundaries that night.
Matcha Cocktail (drink category prize winner)
Chefs Bruno Enachev (2Y ’26 and Zihao Chen (2Y ’27) prepared a spirit forward matcha cocktail called Tea Ceremony. It combined Japanese whisky with ceremonial matcha, balanced by crème de cacao for a silky sip with toasted oak, rich chocolate, and an earthy finish. Bruno demonstrated unparalleled craftsmanship: “We tested six recipes until we were fully confident in the flavor.”
The flavor was so sophisticated that I ended up having three cups. Alcohol and matcha caffeine? Yeah, that combo kept me up until 6 a.m.
Matcha Cream Puffs (sweets category prize winner)
Chefs Grace Shao (MMM '27), JaeYong Ju (MMM '27), and Liwen Xu (MMM '27) whipped up scrumptious cream puffs.
Matcha Pasta (savory category prize winner)
Chefs Nivedita Sundararajan (2Y '26) and Deyasini Sanyal (2Y '26) served a spicy matcha pasta in a small cup, topped with fried chicken and finished with a matcha sauce.
Matcha Cake (Best Aesthetics)
Chef Allison Sheehan (1Y ’26) proved that matcha can be both delicious and camera ready!
Matcha Idlis (Most Creative)
Chefs Saswati Mishra (2Y '26) and Anjali Garg (2Y '26) presented Matcha Idlis, a twist on the classic South Indian savory steamed rice cake.
They even created a beautifully plated showcase for the dish, and it almost looked French. I personally loved this Japanese fusion twist, and the miso butter dip was addictive.
Matcha Ice Cream (Matcha Shines)
Chef Aaditya Venkateswaran, JV of Sneha Basu (2Y ’27), hand made rich, creamy matcha ice cream.
Honorable mentions include Chefs Akshay Acharya (2Y '26 and Gitanjali Jaggi (2Y '26) who prepared a scrumptious Matcha Curry, my personal favorite. The creamy mushroom and spinach base, with that final visible note of matcha, just worked perfectly. They hand-filled each 5 oz cup with rice, curry, and a piece of bread—a full tasting journey of the dish.
Dipesh Puri Goswami (2Y '26) and Navisha Daga (2Y '26) also prepared something I genuinely think Japanese people would love: Matcha Lassi. The sweetness was modest, the yogurt brings a bright tang, and the final visible note of matcha makes it addictive. I even took take some home and finished the bottle myself. Protein rich, low calorie, low fat, and honestly ready for commercialization. Calling all Kellogg angel investors!
How Matcha Night Came Together
As the event lead, I wanted to crowdsource dishes while also building something content generative. I kept thinking about the incredible energy of the BMA Halloween party and asking myself a pretty simple question: why do we not see more people posting and reposting Japan Club events?
So I leaned into the matcha craze and into my role as a curator. The goal was to build a format that people would naturally want to photograph, share, and talk about later.
To de-risk it, I secured a few anchor cooks early, but sign ups filled up in only a day. We ended up with 18 dish entries, and the lineup was genuinely innovative. At that point, I had a feeling that something extraordinary could happen if we pushed it just a little harder.
So we did. We asked each team to make about 60 portions so everyone could try a bite. Which, to be clear, is a huge undertaking. Not even a seasoned SGD host has done that! To fuel the competition face off energy, we made cook flyers. And at Kellogg, sometimes that is all it takes. That type-A, competitive spirit is already there. You just have to bring it to the surface.
Suddenly, people were thinking not just like cooks, but like chefs. Japan Club started asking questions like: Have you done testing? What temperature should this be served at? What is your plating plan? How will people actually grab it and eat it?
Of course, crowdsourcing came with variability I could not fully control arrival times, setup needs, space constraints, and serving readiness. And before the event, I found myself pre playing those moving pieces in my head. Somehow, that created a new culinary synapsis in my brain.
And honestly, it paid off big time.
Cooks showed up deeply invested. They cared about the tiny details. They wanted their dish to taste right, look right, land right. Cooks were piping cream into puffs, frothing milk, plating garnishes, and doing the final touches on site so everything hit the table at peak freshness. Seeing that visible care made me push harder too, because at a certain point, you start thinking: I really cannot let them down.
And then the best kind of proof showed up: people reposted. It also made my day when some Kelloggians came up to me and said, “This is one of the best organized events at Kellogg. You should do this again.” There were definitely things we could have done better, but overall, it worked.
My best friend, Yuka Okunaga (2Y ’26), told me something that stuck with me:
“I can only make 10/10 outcomes with level 10 effort, but Ayaka can spend level 20 effort without hesitation and make a 100/10 outcome. I think that's really amazing.”
I am not good at cooking, and I'm a hardcore introvert. Still, I keep coming back to people, because they can take you somewhere you can't reach alone.
This event probably took the time of around a half-credit course. But it left me with a real sense of reward as well as a deeper connection to my fellow Kelloggians.
The Night Was a Team Sport
Thank you to the 30 cooks who pulled off something genuinely massive. Thank you to the Japan Club members who showed up early, stayed late, and embodied omotenashi, or Japanese hospitality, at its best.
Thank you to Vaibhav Agrawal (MMM '27), my event co-lead and reliable sounding board, and the emcees that kept the energy moving.
Thank you to Akiko Ippitsu (2Y ’27) and Neil Dalal (2Y ’27), who led marketing and created so many of the visuals that made the night feel real before it even existed.
And last but not least, thank you to Japan Club co-Presidents, Yuka Okunaga (2Y ’26) and Teisan Tatsumi (MMM '26), our unflappable quarterback duo. When I was low, you grounded me with emotional maturity and steady execution.
If Matcha Night proved anything, it is that Kellogg is full of talent that just needs a theme, a nudge, and a little matcha to show itself. See more photos of the spectacular night below!
Read More About Kellogg & Japan: Japan, Finally More than a Trip: Building a Kellogg Family Through Japan Trek