The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Hundreds dine at cabbage cook off
Lorain Senior Center hosts fundraiser
Meat rolled in leaves, cooked and served with care was the main dish in the inaugural Stuffed Cabbage Cook Off held Feb. 25 on Lorain’s east side.
The event was a fundraiser for the nonprofit Lorain Community Seniors, which operates the Senior Center at 3361 Garfield Blvd.
Hungry Lorainites and Senior Center supporters snatched up 275 tickets before the cook off opened its doors. Planners estimated at least 300 people crowded the Senior Center for the afternoon gathering.
“We were in dire need because we get no funding from federal, state or city (resources),” said Dianne Mann, chairwoman of the center’s board of directors.
Bingo is the only consistent income for the center, which is “Lorain’s best kept secret,” said Nancy Cline, membership president of the organization.
They credited the efforts of planners Denise Bartlome and Karyn Ferraro, who also credited the help of Mike Savioli, Ward 1 Councilwoman Beth Henley, other volunteers and musicians who played for the afternoon.
“Karen and I, we just like a good party,” said Bartlome. To signify her honorary office as co-planner, she wore a beaded necklace adorned with a plastic head of cabbage the size of a softball.
The idea started among Facebook friends who all bragged they had the best recipe for stuffed cabbage. “Bring it on,” said Bartlome.
The idea spread, as did happiness and fond memories when Ferraro spoke to people willing to lend their hands and kitchens to the cause.
“The abundance of love that came out of most of their conversations about their grandmothers – it was like a warm comfort blanket,” said Ferraro, whose mother, Marie Akosi, used to love the Senior Center. “I can’t stress enough how much love.”
At the Senior Center, overflow seating was necessary when the gym got jammed.
“I’m overwhelmed with it,” Cline said. “We never expected it to get this big.”
“Grateful,” Mann added. “Very grateful.”
A total of 17 teams prepared stuffed cabbages numbering into the thousands. Some of the chefs cut the leaves and meat in two, doubling the number of portions.
Those attending received
two blue tickets to vote for the tastiest cabbage rolls.
So what makes a good stuffed cabbage? It depends who you ask.
“This is my mom’s recipe. It’s got all the Hungarian ingredients,” said Julie Podomnik of Lorain. Her mother, Dorotny Chaszar of Amherst, learned about the event via Facebook.
“I said, I’ve never done a cookoff, but I know I’ve got really good cabbage rolls,” Podomnik said.
Her secret: homemade Hungarian sausage. “It has to be fresh,” she said.
Melissa McIntyre and Ondre Recznik made 80 cabbage rolls that were gone within 90 minutes.
“It was always like, a dream of mine to do,” McIntyre said about the cookoff. Her secret ingredient was “the soul I put into it.”
The response at the event was amazing, McIntyre said.
“I hope they get a lot of money for the elderly, I really, really do,” she said.
Annette Corrao of Lorain used Auntie Anna Kaya’s Hungarian stuffed cabbage recipe from a friend’s aunt.
Her secret was using all pork, different from other recipes that use a mixture of beef and pork, she said.
“It’s very sweet,” Corrao
said. “People are voting very heavily for it.
“And of course I like to look the part,” she added, referring to her ethnic Hungarian dress.
Linda Findley of Amherst said slow cookers are the best way to prepare stuffed cabbage, which taste even better if they can let the flavors mix overnight in the refrigerator.
Marty and Cathy Kelly, Lorain natives who live in Amherst, said their recipe uses sarma, or cabbage that is sour like sauerkraut, but not shredded. Marty’s brother, Greg Kelly, and his wife, Pam, brought their grandchildren, Ashlyn, 6, Brantley, 4, and Jackson, 20 months, and all enjoyed the meal.
“I didn’t have any bad cabbage rolls,” Pam Kelly said.
“I don’t think there is such a thing,” Greg Kelly said. “Mean and cabbage and potatoes, you can’t go wrong.”
Stuffed cabbage cook Chris Olejko used the recipe of his father, famed Lorain Mayor Alex “Kiki” Olejko.
Linda Long, a Lorain native now living in Elyria, brought her adult son, “Too Tall” Tony Long, who served as bodyguard in case anyone attempted to discover her recipe. She said her mother, Cleo Atkinson, enjoyed coming to the Senior Center.
“You’ve always got to give back,” Long said.
Lorain Port Authority Executive Director Tom Brown was a guest chef with his daughters, Summer and Willow. His special ingredient was garlic sausage from an early morning run to Fligner’s Market.
In the end, the crowd used their tastebuds to guide their tickets for voting.
Second place went to Bruce Bevan, who cooked with a recipe of his mother, the late Nancy Pataky. She cooked stuffed cabbage and chicken paprikash for dozens of church dinners over the years, he said.
The family secret: Lots of paprika mixed into the meat. “I don’t think everybody does that,” Bevan said.
Nancy Lee won first place. She and her husband, J.R., are board members of the Senior Center, leaders of the Eastside Block Watch and regular attendees of Lorain City Council meetings.
“I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it,” she said. “My family kept telling me, you need to enter something with that, because they all love them.”