Simply The Best
No fuss recipe that transcends three generations wins grand prize at first nationwide cooking competition aimed at fighting hunger
CHICAGO --- November 4, 2005 --- A recipe by a retired school teacher with only a handful of ingredients most impressed top restaurant chefs and other judges who this week selected the Best Home Cook for America’s Second Harvest - the Nation’s Food Bank Network.
Barbara Rush, a former special education teacher from Granville, Ohio won the grand prize with zucchini casserole, a recipe that transcends three generations.
“My mother-in-law is in heaven and must be smiling,” said Rush after the competition at Sur La Table, a specialty cookware retailer at 52-54 E. Walton St. “She would be so happy that I took her recipe and gave it to all of you.”
Rush’s casserole – layers of zucchini, tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers, cheddar cheese and buttered bread crumbs – is one of 12 recipes that reached the final competition of One Big Table Potluck, a nationwide grassroots movement that America’s Second Harvest launched in April to raise money and build awareness on hunger through a potluck recipe contest. Thousands of people attended potluck gatherings throughout the country, entered their favorite recipes and made cash donations to their local food bank. More than $75,000 has been contributed.
Rush’s zucchini casserole made the first cut when she won the local competition in Granville. Rush was among hundreds of people who formed a mile-long potluck along Main Street in the southern Ohio town. Other potluck dinners included church gatherings in rural Texas and a pig roast in upstate New York.
“The first year of the One Big Table Potluck movement showed us how cooking remains a powerful connection between generations, families and communities – if not the entire nation,” said cookbook author Molly O’Neill, the architect of One Big Table Potluck and former New York Times columnist.
The judges – Charlie Trotter of his eponymous restaurant; Art Smith, cookbook author and TV chef personality; Tony Mantuano, cookbook author and chef of Spiaggia; Paul Kahan of Blackbird Restaurant and Avec; John T. Edge, founder of Southern Foodways Alliance, and Beth Wareham, editor of The Joy of Cooking, awarded Rush with the grand prize of a Viking Range valued at $5,000 and the bragging rights as the Best Home Cook in America. Judges also awarded a Viking Range Company culinary package of cookware, knives and appliances valued at $3,000 to each category winner.
For Best Heirloom (family recipes passed down from one generation to the next) Natalia Kouraeva, a recent Russian émigré of Westfield, N.J., won with her Russian salad of roasted beets, carrots, potatoes, peas, sauerkraut and onions while Delores Griffin took the title of Best Regional for Natchitoches Meat Pies consisting of deep-fried half moon shaped dumplings stuffed with pork, beef, onions, garlic and shallots.
In the Stone Soup category (dishes easy on the budget but high on imagination), Lauren Slaff, an entrepreneur who lives in Greenwich Village, N.Y., won with Tomato Spice Chicken, and Lisa Keys, a physician’s assistant from Middlebury, Conn., took the honor of Personal Best (a chance for amateur cooks to strut their stuff) with Nuts Over Turtle Tart.
“One Big Table has shown us the power of food; how it brings people together in all walks of life and, in our case, united in the fight against hunger,” said Ertharin Cousin, chief operating officer for America’s Second Harvest.
Rush said her mother-in-law, who lived in New Jersey, nurtured a “huge garden” and that the recipe grew out of the bounty she harvested at the end of each season.
“The flavors just popped,” Kahan said of the grand prize winning dish. “It’s seasonal, has great texture and a balance of flavors – everything appropriate for a great casserole.”
All recipes entered in the first year of One Big Table Potluck will be considered for a cookbook by O’Neill. One Big Table: An American Cookbook will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2007.
“One Big Table Potluck resonated with us because we are about cooking,” said
Kathy Tierney, chief executive office of Sur La Table, a corporate sponsor of
America’s Second Harvest. “The idea of people from all backgrounds sharing
recipes and learning about the importance of stopping hunger in America is very
compelling to us.”
For all 12 finalist recipes and to learn
more about America’s Second Harvest and its One Big Table Potluck campaign to
end hunger, visit www.onebigtable.org
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America's Second Harvest - The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the country’s largest charitable hunger-relief organization with a network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food rescue programs serving 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The network secures and distributes nearly two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. It supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes.
Contact:
Laura Yee/LY Media
773.784.8490
laurayee@lymedia.net
