A feel-good feast
Mac-n-cheese Bowl, a food bank fundraiser, set to mark 10th year
In fall 2008, a reader of the Table Hopping blog on timesunion. com sent me an email describing how she and her daughter, fans of “real” macaroni-andcheese, had been sampling different mac-n-cheeses at area restaurants. She speculated that a charity fundraiser featuring restaurant-made mac-ncheese would be popular, especially during the upcoming winter months.
I brought the idea to the Regional Food Bank. Familiar with their history of well-executed events, I thought they would do a good job with what came to be known as the Mac-ncheese Bowl. Being a journalist for a daily newspaper whose outlets include a blog that allows me to publish as soon as I’m done writing, I was surprised and dismayed to be told the Food Bank needed more than a year to put together a big new event. But they took the time, did it right, and the first year was such a hit that people figured out a way, on the day of the event, to exploit a loophole and nab tickets that were technically sold out.
It was popular from the start with restaurants, too. Inspired by what seems to be an inborn competitiveness among chefs, some restaurants made mac-n-cheese extravagances that wowed with their creativity. Valente’s Restaurant of
Watervliet, which at the time didn’t even offer mac-n-cheese on its menu, won two awards that first year, and 18 months later had a frozen version available in supermarkets. Home cooks were just as enthusiastic: The first year’s winner repeated his victory seven years later; another, emboldened by winning two years in a row, launched a food truck and catering company. And last year, we invited kid cooks for the first time, drawing entries from accomplished 8- to 13-year-olds.
And here we are in 2019, looking forward to the 10th annual Mac-n-cheese Bowl, scheduled for Saturday, March 2, at Siena College in Loudonville. In its first nine years, the event has raised $355,000 for the Regional Food Bank. It warms me every winter to see 2,000 people, dozens of restaurants and a squad of home cooks, all united by a common love of a universal comfort food at an event inspired by a reader’s suggestion more than a decade ago. Like mac-n-cheese itself, sometimes the simplest ideas have a way of working out the best.
The reader who suggested the idea is Diane Digiorgio. She and her mac-n-cheese-loving daughter, Kaitlin Soule, will be guest judges this year at the Mac-ncheese Bowl. ▶ sbarnes@timesunion.com 518-454-5489 blog.timesunion. com/tablehopping @ Tablehopping facebook.com/ Stevebarnesfoodcritic