The Department of Surgery recently submitted their diversity dish–the multicultural pizza–to the 2021 Office of Diversity and Inclusion Diversity Fair and took home first place in the competition.

Typically, the fair is an in-person event where departments across the UAB School of Medicine compete to produce the best tasting dishes for judges to try. Due to COVID, the fair went virtual this year and asked departments to submit their video and recipe. After a 4-day voting period on social media and careful review by the judges—looking at creativity, presentation, and final plating—the 2021 Diversity Fair winners were announced.

The multicultural pizza was created to represent the diversity identifiers tool that the Department of Surgery Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee developed. Four quadrants on the pizza represented Central and South America, Asia, Mediterranean countries, and the Southern United States.

Associate Professor Robert Dabal, M.D., who leads the UAB Surgery Diversity Fair team each year, kicked off the introduction. Those who appeared in the video also included Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Colin Martin, M.D., FACS, General Surgery Residents Juan Munoz, M.D., and Meixi Ma, M.D., Assistant Professor Panayotis Vardas, M.D., and General Surgery Resident Brett Melnikoff, M.D.

“Despite the year looking so different, we were still excited to participate in the 2021 Diversity Fair,” said Dabal. “I think our win can be contributed to our collaborative, team-effort approach. We are already planning for next year, when hopefully, we will be back in person.”

All recipes were compiled into a 2021 cookbook that you may wish to view or download here.