The Cafeteria staff’s Italian panini won a national award through Chef Monica’s Signature Sandwich Sweepstakes from Pillsbury.

“The form actually came across my email from my director, Carmen Fischer, and everybody, we just thought, ‘Why not enter? What do we have to lose?’” Cafeteria Manager Kim Moore said.

The Italian is the most popular sandwich served in the Cafeteria.

It consists of two pieces of panini bread with a rosemary infusion of rosemary, garlic and olive oil. The sandwich contains two ounces of ham, one ounce of cheese, salami, lettuce, tomato, pickles, black olives and banana peppers.

“The best part is the banana peppers because it gives it that little kick, so it’s that kick that’s really good. And pepper jack cheese too. Everybody loves pepper jack,” Moore said.

Winning the contest was unexpected for Moore, and she was told she won by Rockwood Dietitian Kristin Davis.

“[Davis] called me and said, ‘Kim, did you enter a contest?’ And I said ‘Uh…yeah.’ I thought I was in trouble,” Moore said.

Moore shared the news with all of the Cafeteria staff because everyone helps out in designing sandwiches.

“It is a team effort here because everybody’s like ‘Hey, why don’t we try this, maybe if we take that off and put something else on it,’” Moore said.

She believes the Italian won because of the highly-praised banana peppers.

“The students here are crazy about banana peppers. They love them. We go through probably a gallon every two days,” she said.

For Brendan Shannon, senior, the best part of the Italian panini is the rosemary infusion in the bread. To him, it wasn’t shocking that the sandwich won.

“It’s just a great combination that adds a ton of flavor. I’m not surprised it won the contest! It doesn’t taste like something you would expect from a school cafeteria,” he said.