Hardin County’s four mayors battled in a test of culinary skills in the name of charity.
Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory, Radcliff Mayor J.J. Duvall, Vine Grove Mayor Pam Ogden and West Point Mayor Richard Ciresi competed in a Chopped-like cooking competition Thursday night at Cleangoodeats in Radcliff.
All mayors were accompanied by a member of their respective city’s council to aid them in the cooking.
The mayors and council members had to cook with several seemingly unlikely ingredients to create the best dishes that were judged by a few community leaders.
Ultimately, Duvall, along with councilwoman Michelle Mitchell, came out on top in the second round against Gregory and councilwoman Julia Springsteen.
Sakinah Bunch, who is a naturopathic doctor and integrative nutrition health coach, is the owner of Cleangoodeats, which is a farm-to-table cooking studio open to the public.
Bunch said the competition came about through a discussion with Radcliff Small Business Alliance President Matt Smith. She said Smith suggested that they have the mayors compete against each other.
Ogden, who competed with councilwoman Donna Spagenberger, said the time limit aspect of the competition was particularly challenging from a mental point of view.
“I don’t think any of us were great (cooks) but we jumped in there because it was for charity,” she said.
Gregory joked they should move the competition to Elizabethtown to have home court advantage, but was still happy to compete against Duvall in the final round despite losing.
“It was good to have the opportunity to represent a local charity,” he said.
Duvall said he enjoyed the banter between the different mayors as they did their best to cook the dishes. He said he is “absolutely” not a good cook, but “we were able to work with what we were given.”
“It was a great, fun competition,” Duvall said.
Ciresi, who competed with councilwoman Amy Bickel, said it was great to see the whole county essentially come together for a good cause, and have fun while doing it. He said he considers himself a decent cook despite being unable to make it to the second round.
“I’ll be better prepared next year,” Ciresi said.
Bunch said they’re planning on having a similar cooking event later in the year for area first responders to compete in.
“Food is our tool, but the point is to bring the community back together,” Bunch said.
Each mayor chose one charity they wanted to support. Bunch said half of the total money raised will go toward Duvall’s charity of choice which is the Youth Enrichment Program.
The rest of the money will be divided between the other three charities, Wesley Hilltop House for Gregory, Forever Home for Paws for Ogden and North Hardin High School’s Marching Band for Ciresi.
She said money was raised through tickets being sold to people to watch the competition live and businesses supporting the event including Kinetic by Windstream, The Commitment House and New Hope Church.
“We were thankful to have community support,” Bunch said.
On Friday, Bunch said they were still collecting donations, and that they will continue to collect them through the weekend at cleangoodeats.com.
