BY LISA MILLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
For 50 years, local cooks have
sliced, diced and boiled their
way to prizes, prestige and a
place in an ever-growing community
of culinary experts.
The tradition started in May
1961, when 10 women from Otsego
and Delaware counties
gathered at Wright’s Electric,
an appliance store on Oneonta’s
Main Street, to prepare dishes
chosen as finalists in the inaugural
Star Recipe Contest. The
newspaper, called The Oneonta
Star in those days, published
its first Cookbook edition May
18, 1961. Norma Lee Havens of
Oneonta was featured in a story
on the front of the 40-page special
section with the headline
“Mrs. John Havens Contest Winner!”
and the winning recipe,
Svenska Meatballs.
Today, the tradition continues
at the State University College
at Oneonta’s Morris Conference
Center, where cooks will prepare their favorite recipes for
judges and spectators starting
at 9 a.m.
Winners will be announced
at the end of the cook-off and in
Monday’s Daily Star. Recipes will
be published in The Daily Star’s
Weekend edition March 20-21.
“We are proud and honored
to carry on this longstanding
tradition,” Daily Star Publisher
Tanya Shalor said. “We truly
appreciate the community participation
that makes this event
a success year after year, and
we hope to make our 50th the
best ever.”
CHANGING VENUES, CHANGING TIMES
The cook-off was held at a variety
of venues in its first 34 years,
including the historic Bresee’s
Department Store on Main
Street, the Pyramid Mall (where
FoxCare is today), the State
University College at Oneonta
Oneonta home economics
building, the Oneonta High
School home economics
department and St. James’
Episcopal Church.
In 1995, the cook-off
moved to the Hannaford
supermarket (known then
as Shop’n Save), where it
remained through 2007.
For the past three years,
the event has been held in
partnership with SUNY
Oneonta. In 2008, the first
year of the partnership, internationally
known master
chef Joe Poon, a 1978 SUCO
grad, served as a judge and
entertained the crowd with
a garnish demonstration
with fellow judges Brian
Bennett and Bill O’Donnell
of the college’s catering
and dining services.
No matter what the venue,
the cook-off attracted
spectators, from friends
and family of the finalists
to shoppers who happened
to be passing through to retirees
who made the event
a social outing, setting up
shop in the front row and
trying every dish.
“I liked the way they explained
everything, and
you got the recipe and a
sample,” said Josephine
Markovich of St. James
Manor in Oneonta, who
has attended the cook-off
with friends every year
for the past 10 years.
In the days before digital
photos and computer pagination,
putting together
the annual Cookbook edition
was no small task. The
contest drew hundreds of
entries for consideration
by the judges and publication
in Cookbook sections
that typically ran from 40
to more than 60 pages.
“We regularly had 400 or
500 recipes, and all of them
had to be set by hand,” recalled
Anna Elwyn, who
coordinated the recipe
contest as The Star’s Family
Page editor from the late
’60s through 1990.
Some recipe entries were
neatly typed, some were
submitted on index cards
and others were scrawled
on scraps of paper in handwriting
that had to be deciphered
(a challenge that
persists in the e-mail age,
according to Emily Popek,
associate managing editor
at The Daily Star and coordinator
of the cook-off for
the past seven years).
The contest was receiving
more than 400 recipes
as late as 1986, but the
number of entries waned
in the ’90s, as prepared
foods became more widely
available and people
began to rely on computers
for information.
“People are still looking
for good recipes,” said Elwyn,
81, – only now if you
want a recipe for rhubarb,
you Google `rhubarb’ on
the Internet.”
WHATEVER CAN GO WRONG … WILL
Between being nervous
and having to adapt to cooking in an unfamiliar
kitchen, cook-off contestants
have had their share
of minor mishaps. One
contestant found a stick
of butter on the counter
while cleaning up — and
realized she’d forgotten to
add it to her cake. Another
cut herself while slicing
vegetables and had to stop
and put on a Band-Aid.
Adjusting cooking times
for a hot plate rather than
a gas or electric stove is a
perennial challenge. “Every
year, there’s someone
who’s hung up waiting for
their water to boil,” Popek
said.
Elwyn recalled the year
the cook-off was held at the
old Sears & Roebuck store
on Main Street, where Ruffino
Mall stands today.
“The only water available
was from a washing
machine that they had
hooked up nearby or from
the ladies room on another
floor. That was interesting!”
Another year, the
cook-off was postponed at
the last minute because of
a surprise May snowstorm
that knocked out power at
the Pyramid Mall.
CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS
In the early years of the
cook-off, most of the finalists
were women and teenage
girls. Gradually, the
contest drew more entries
from men, and in 1979, 17-
year-old Mark Balbuena of
Oneonta became the first
male winner with his Candycane
Delight, a candycane
shaped yeast bread
filled with dates, raisins
and apricots, and drizzled
with powdered sugar icing.
Two years later,
Thomas Vajo of Worcester
claimed the top prize
with his Raspberry Swirl
Cheese Cake. By the ’90s,
men were winning almost
as often as women. During
the past 20 years, nine men
have taken home the grand
prize — including the past
three years running.
Youth involvement has
been a constant. The first
teen to nab the grand prize
was 17-year-old Oneonta
High School student Colleen
Seeley, who won an
electric range from Bresee’s
in 1967 with her Orange
Glazed Stuffed Pork
Chops. Two years later,
14-year-old Susan Lee of
Stamford placed second
with her Fruit Sherbet. In
the decades that followed,
teens continued entering
recipes, competing as
finalists and participating
as spectators. Today,
young people continue to
be a big part of the cookoff,
with a special category
for college students.
For Jan Andrews of
Davenport, the cook-off
has been a family affair.
Jan competed in the
cook-off twice herself and
experienced the event
as a proud mother when
daughter Caitlin was selected
to compete twice
as a teenager. Caitlin’s
younger brother, Phillip,
was also chosen as a finalist
twice before nabbing
the grand prize in 1998,
at age 16, with his Grilled
Chicken with Citrus Salsa.
He remains the youngest
grand-prize winner in the
cook-off’s history.
“It’s a fun thing to do,”
Andrews said. “As a
mother, I’ve always encouraged
(my children) to
cook and be creative.
“The cook-off presents a
great opportunity to share
skills and be competitive,
Andrews said, adding that
she always entered the
contest with the philosophy, “Someone has to win
– why not you?”
Today, the family that
gathered at the cook-off
to cheer one another on
is still cooking together.
Phil, 28, owns Nicoletta’s
Italian Café in Cooperstown,
and all three of his
siblings, Caitlin, Mark and
Megan, work at the restaurant.
Andrews, meanwhile,
is encouraging another
generation of cooks
— her fifth-grade students
at Greater Plains Elementary
School — to enter the
recipe contest.
A COMMUNITY OF COOKS
The cook-off has always
been about more than winning.
“To me, the recipe contest
was just a group of
women who liked to cook
— and men — getting together
and talking about
cooking, and preparing
food together,” Elwyn
said. “I always thought of
it as not really a contest,
but a gathering of cooks.”
Two-time grand-prize
winner Kitty Brennan of
Cooperstown said she’s
enjoyed the sense of a
“brother and sisterhood”
of cooks that has developed
through the years
during experiences at this
and other local culinary
events. (On a Saturday
morning in February, she
shared cook-off memories
while peeling 10 pounds
of carrots for her Carrot
Bisque contribution to the
Empty Bowls fundraiser
for the Cooperstown Food
Bank.)
“What I’ve enjoyed the
most is being enough of
an old hand about it that
I could help other contestants,”
said Brennan,
recalling one year when
she was “chopping onions
for one fella and peeling
potatoes for another gal.
… You learn the things
that count. You’re not going
to tell your competition,
`This is when you
need to wear gloves,’ but
if somebody’s scrambling
to get 5 pounds of potatoes
peeled, it’s nice to be able
to pitch in.”
50 YEARS … AND COUNTING
Organizers and participants
agreed that, even
in today’s busy world of
drive-thru dining and microwave
meals, people
will always be interested
in cooking and food.
“Cooking is something
that will be around forever,”
Andrews said. “In
our society, we don’t just
eat for needs — it’s a social
outlet, a creative outlet.”
Elwyn said she’s not
surprised the recipe contest
has endured for five
decades, and she expects
it will continue for many
years to come.
“As long as people are
eating,” she said, “I think
they’ll be interested in
cooking.”
