Cook-off a tasty treat for West Bay Manor residents

Matt Bower
Posted 11/6/14

Residents at West Bay Manor senior living on West Shore Road recently gathered for a cook-off that featured pumpkin and apple as the ingredients.

The cook-off was not only to bring the community …

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Cook-off a tasty treat for West Bay Manor residents

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Residents at West Bay Manor senior living on West Shore Road recently gathered for a cook-off that featured pumpkin and apple as the ingredients.

The cook-off was not only to bring the community together and have fun but also to feature its cooking staff.

“We have great chefs in our community and this is a way to feature their talent and promote our community to the public,” said Brad Logan of West Bay Manor. “We have a lot of talent here.”

Chefs weren’t the only staff involved in the contest. It was open to whoever wanted to participate and there was a total of 11 contestants.

“I’m not a chef, but it’s all in fun,” said Logan, who made a baked pumpkin donut served with an apple slice and homemade ice cream.

Logan said he enjoyed the camaraderie.

“It was a lot of fun to participate in,” he said.

Dining Room Supervisor Shani Garcia said she wanted to support the kitchen staff, and she loves to bake, so she made mini caramel-apple cheesecakes for the contest.

“Seeing everyone’s creations was the best part; they did an amazing job,” she said.

Dawn Lindalow was inspired by the colors and tastes of fall and made a pumpkin cupcake.

Carol Botelho, who has been with the West Bay Manor staff for 31 years, made a sugar pumpkin; stuffed with Italian breadcrumbs, garlic, maple bacon, Gruyere cheese, heavy cream and nutmeg.

“My daughter-in-law made it for Thanksgiving one year, as a side-dish, but it can be a main dish,” Botelho said.

Other contestants included Vicky Briggs, Tonya Tyler, Victoria Cherwinski, Roxann Davis, Hil Hernandez, Barbara Videtto, and Wayne Cote.

Logan said this was the facility’s second cook-off, following a strawberry ingredient contest held in June.

“This cooking contest was done in-house, but we’re hoping to take it bigger to all the Brookdale communities,” he said. “The goal is to have something open to all retirement communities,” and held at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet.

West Bay Manor is one of nine Brookdale communities in Rhode Island. According to Brookdale’s website, www.brookdale.com, Brookdale communities offer a broad continuum of care, including independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, continuing care retirement, home health, therapy and hospice. Brookdale serves about 67,000 residents in 46 states.

For the baking contest, entrees were scored on visual appearance, taste, creativity, overall impression, and personal presentations by a panel of five judges; including Jordan Freitas and Chef Ryan Mancini of Twin Oaks restaurant; NBC 10 Chef Frank Terranova of Cooking with Class; Joe Zaccagnini of the former Zaccagnini’s Bakery in Cranston; and Patti April.

Each of the top three winners received a trophy and the winning dish will be featured on the dining room menu. The winners, all chefs at West Bay, were: Roxann Davis in third place with a pumpkin sage soup that featured ham, apples, celery and carrots; Hil Hernandez in second place with a turkey burger stuffed with apple relish, maple mustard and cranberries and cheese; and the champion, Victoria Cherwinski, with pork belly and apple chutney.

“I always ate pork chops and applesauce as a kid, so I put a modern twist on it,” Cherwinski said. “I had a blast making it. I hope they enjoyed eating it as much as I did making it.”

Freitas said he was “blown away” by the food and impressed with the hospitality.

“This was a good outing. The food was amazing and I’m glad to be a part of this,” said Mancini, who hinted that he might add a twist or two to some of the dishes and put them on the Twin Oaks menu.

April agreed that the food was amazing.

“It was an honor to be a part of this; I enjoyed it immensely,” said April.

Terranova thanked everyone for their hard work.

“I do eight to 10 of these [contests] a year. It’s always a lot of fun with the interchange of getting to meet and laugh with the people,” he said. “Now, I’m going to go home and my wife and kids are going to ask what’s for dinner…I don’t know.”

Zaccagnini, who worked at the family bakery for 54 years, and ran it for 31, said he appreciated being asked to be a judge.

“You don’t have to pay us [to be here] because you fixed us such good food,” he joked.

West Bay Manor Executive Director Brian Loynds, who emceed the contest, said the goal now is to take the cook-off to the next level.

“We hope to have all nine [Brookdale] communities participate in a February cook-off,” he said.

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