Men Who Cook fundraiser sees record crowd

Men Who Cook for Women Who Wine was held Saturday at the old Hingham public school gym and saw hundreds of people from all over Montana file into the building to take part of food and wine.

Joyce Donoven, one of the organizers of the event, said they have they have been holding this fundraiser for eight years.

Donoven said the money raised by the event goes to people ranging from Chester to Saco to pay for getting them to and from hospitals in the smaller Hi-Line towns.

"The funds are for anyone who applies if they're having a medical emergency they can get their funds for travel and lodging," Donoven said.

Donoven said Sunday she did not have the final amount of money raised by Saturday's event, but that it is "easily $35,000."

"It's right around there," Donoven said. "I would say we had a record crowd yesterday."

There were 33 cooks, many of whom worked with teams to make a myriad of different styles of food - from red beans and rice to sukiyaki rolls.

There were 340 to 350 people attending the event.

Attendees are asked to vote on which cook made the best food and last year's winner is now the returning champion.

Larry Sasaki took first place for the second year in a row with his sweet and sour ribs with white rice.

"We made 40 pounds this year," Sasaki said. "This has been in the family for some time. I don't want to brag, but we won first place last year."

Last year, he made sukiyaki rolls with fried rice to take the title of best cook at Men Who Cook and, keeping true to his traditional Japanese dishes, defended the title another year.

Bob Vosen was serving his homemade ice cream and toppings to those with a sweet tooth. He said he picks the chokecherries from a tree in his front yard to make his chokecherry ice cream topping.

"We made ice cream for Kremlin's 100-year anniversary, Gildford's 100-year anniversary and two years here," Vosen said. "We've made a lot of ice cream."

Donoven said they see a lot of the same cooks at the event every year, but they had some new ones this year.

Attendees also had a chance to bid on auction items donated from businesses and Montanans. A generator from Torgerson's, a wine cooler from Valley Furniture and a tractor from John Deere were some of the bigger items up for auction.

By far, the most money was made by metal sculptures created by a local artist. The art pieces sold for $1,000 and $1,600 a piece.

"Those are usually some of our hottest items - any of the artwork things," Donoven said.

"We just really don't make a big deal about how much money we make," Donoven said. "It's just a gift. We don't have a ceiling we're trying to reach. Everyone pitches in and makes it work."