St. Mark's Lutheran Church will defend its title of Iron Chef Williamsport against the Balls Mills United Methodist Church challenger as a way to raise money for Family Promise of Lycoming County.
The fourth annual event begins at 5 p.m. March 18 in the fellowship hall at St. Mark's, 142 Market St., with a dinner consisting of a salad, chicken monterey, green beans, baby red potatoes and roll with a chocolate indulgence for dessert to those with reservations.
After the meal is served, the cooking challenge begins, with the winner of the one-hour competition receiving the coveted Spoon of Doom, said Bernadette Haas Jones, youth and family ministry for St. Mark's Church.
Article Photos
SUN-GAZETTE?FILE?PHOTO
Pastor Kenneth Elkin, above, and the St. Mark’s Lutheran Church team will square off in an Iron Chef competition against the Balls Mills United Methodist Church team, led by Pastor Jay Morris.
St. Mark's team, headed by Pastor Kenneth Elkin, will face off against the Balls Mills team, led by Pastor Jay Morris. The contest will be projected on a large screen on stage and streamed live on the Web at ustream.tv/stmarkschurch for those who can't attend.
In the past three years, more than $20,000 has been raised.
On Monday, both teams will receive their ingredients, which will includes a protein, a starch and a vegetable. They also will receive ingredients to make a salad, appetizer or dessert. Last year, St. Mark's received flank steak, parsnips and beets. They had to make a dessert out of raspberries, cream cheese and Froot Loops cereal.
There is no recipe with those kinds of ingredients, so Jones said they had to improvise. They converted ebelskivers, a traditional Danish pancake, into what they called loopy raspskivers.
Family Promise will receive 75 percent of the ticket sale proceeds, with the rest paying for the cost of the meal. The program has been running for almost two years as a way to provide a place for homeless families to stay together. Thirteen congregations have hosted more than 30 families and many volunteers serve at the day center. More than 600 volunteers countywide have given their time to the ministry.
For this year's and previous challenges, visit youtube.com/user/StMarksChurch.
