By Sky West (Whetstone Contributor)

The Whetstone/ Kim Manahan

The Wesley cafeteria served four types of cooked rabbit during lunch on Feb. 22.

Rabbit was the secret ingredient in an Iron Chef competition between Aramark chef John Finney and Wesley sophomore Brad Mayer.

Finney made fried rabbit with vegetables as well as rabbit stew, but Mayer won the competition with his rabbit fradiablo (cooked in spicy marinara) and rabbit in plum sauce.

Sophomore Victoria Faught loved the new menu item.

“None of my friends wanted to try it, so I did,” she said. “It tasted sort of like dry chicken. I didn’t like the fried rabbit, but the rabbit stew was excellent.”

Mayer received $50, a 25-piece bucket of fried chicken and a 2-liter bottle of soda for winning the competition.

“Rabbit may have cost a bit more money than chicken or beef,” said executive chef of Aramark, Pete Buoncristiano. “But I want to broaden students’ horizons by giving them a chance to try new things.”

Not all students were fond of the meal.

“I don’t think they should serve rabbit,” said sophomore Niharika Patel. “I’m a vegetarian and I think it’s unethical to eat animals in general. To me, it’s like if someone killed a human and was serving it for lunch.”

Sophomore Kyle Dixon was hesitant to try the rabbit.

“I didn’t eat it,” he said. “It sounds disgusting to me. But at least it’s different, and some of my friends said they liked it.”

Freshman Jason Chen agrees that rabbit is not for everyone.

“I don’t eat at the cafeteria because I work at the mall, so I usually eat there,” he said. “But I’ve had rabbit at restaurants before. It’s different, and I don’t personally like it, but there’s nothing morally wrong with serving it.”

Alicia Seewald, a senior, appreciates the added variety, but believes that the food staff should spend their money on serving healthier foods.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous for them to serve rabbit,” she said. “It’s not a common food here. Kudos for being adventurous and changing up the menu, but what we need is more healthy foods to choose from. As of now, all they have is salad; everything else is processed.”

“Some students may have turned up their nose at the thought of eating rabbit,” said Buoncristiano, “But we had 50 pounds of rabbit and we sold out completely.”