Over the past three weeks, Spoon University at Berkeley partnered with R3lish to put on a food photography contest called #FoodsofBerkeley. The contest ended this Friday, March 13, at 11:59pm, and our Spoon team stayed up all weekend tallying up the likes on the photos from our 69 participants.

Here are the final results:

1. Cory Maryott, 512 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Cory Maryott

Cory started his morning with a slice of seasonal fruit pie and a cup of coffee with the newest edition of Kinfolk, and ended the photo contest with a $250 gift card to his restaurant of choice.

2. Bertha Chui, 361 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Bertha Chui

Bertha enjoyed a bowl of bibimbap at Bowl’d Korean Rice Bar with friends.

3. Sierra Minchaca, 201 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Sierra Minchaca

Sierra made a beautiful, homemade “herb salad with mandarin oranges, coconut flakes and a homemade mustard vinaigrette.”

4. Tram Nguyen, 165 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Tram Nguyen

Tram photographed her Salmon Carpaccio from her first visit to Kiraku.

5. Lydia Chen, 96 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Lydia Chen

Lydia had her tater tots with ketchup while joking with her friends.

6. Rozina Sara Fonyo, 83 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Rozina Sara Fonyo

Rozina concocted chocolate cups filled with dark chocolate mousse and topped with cinnamon whipped cream, creating a “100% edible” dessert that we’d love to sample.

7. Tiffany Xu, 82 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Tiffany Xu

Tiffany beautifully presented the pumpkin soup with pesto paste, coconut milk and pumpkin seeds that she made with her mom.

8. Eileen Wang, 70 likes

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Photo by Eileen Wang

Eileen photographed her brunch of “perfectly” fried eggs over avocado toast from Babette.

9. Rachel Lee, 67 likes

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Photo by Rachel Lee

Rachel’s brunch at Elmwood Cafe included a seasonal waffle topped with blueberries and lemon curd.

10. Luna Zhang, 63 likes

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Photo by Luna Zhang

Luna’s photo of foie gras on toast and caviar served with a fragrant grape perfected the art of plating. Perhaps she picked up some tips from us?

11. Elle Lewindowski, 60 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Elle Lewindowski

Elle captured her love for cheese in this shot of her decadently garnished nachos.

12. Peggy Lin, 58 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Peggy Lin

Peggy took a shot of her delicious veggie omelette bagel from Royal Ground Coffee House on Shattuck.

13. Katie Mak, 58 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Katie Mak

Katie spent one of her Saturday afternoons longing for spring break over Masse’s Pastries with her friend. Spoon definitely approves of her foodstagram techniques.

14. Fangfei Yin, 57 likes

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Photo by Fangfei Yin

Fangfei snapped a photo of the fantastic sushi she had.

15. Katherine Shi, 54 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Katherine Shi

Katherine proudly displayed her homemade summer rolls with soft tofu.

16. Jocelyn Hsu, 52 likes

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Photo by Jocelyn Hsu

Jocelyn ventured out to Fog Harbor Fish House in San Francisco to enjoy this seafood-filled plate of crab-stuffed lobster.

17. Irene Kim, 50 likes

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Photo by Irene Kim

Irene’s meal from one of her favorite brunch stops, Elmwood Cafe, included a poached egg and bacon sandwich.

18. Madi Hight, 49 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Madi Hight

Madi showed off her baking skills with her triple-lemon corgi cake with marshmallow fondant on Valentine’s Day.

19. Eunice Choi, 46 likes

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Photo by Eunice Choi

Eunice also mastered the art of plating by making use of the top-down shot of her beautiful salad.

20. Aleeseah Joo, 46 likes

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Photo Courtesy of Ahleeseah Joo

Ahleeseah’s photo of the turkey and pumpkin pies she made for Suitcase Clinic‘s Friendsgiving potluck captured both her love for food and the Spoon team sentiment of enjoying “yummy meals with friends and family.”


These 20 participants—and their respective plus ones—will be treated to a $30-value dinner, courtesy of R3lish.

Not only are we rewarding these top participants, but we have also drawn five other participants from a random drawing to win gift cards from local Berkeley restaurants. Congratulations to Warren Tian, Eric Delgado, Logan Carter, Maylene Fan and Julia Chang!

And to thank our first handful of participants who helped kick off our contest by submitting within the first two days, we will be treating them to a free drink from ShareTea or Tea Press.

From all of us at Spoon, we would like to say a massive thank you to all of our participants for making our very first photo competition a success. We hope to see all of our winners on Tuesday, March 17, on Sproul where we will be distributing prize information and prizes from 10am to 3pm during our St. Patrick’s Day Bake Sale.