Area churches gather for annual cook-off

Food, fellowship and a dash of friendly competition are the main ingredients in the Kenyon Area Internship Committee’s (KAIC) annual cook-off.

Seven local churches gathered Sunday at Gol Lutheran Church after their morning services, each bringing a soup for the cook-off.

The KAIC is a partnership between Luther Seminary in St. Paul and the seven ELCA congregations. Since 1977, the committee has overseen a long series of interns — seminary students who serve a variety of functions for the churches in the network.

In addition to Gol, the network includes Dale Lutheran Church, Holden Lutheran Church and First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenyon, Vang Lutheran Church in Dennison, Grace Lutheran Church in Nerstrand and Trinity Lutheran Church in West Concord.

Every year, cooks from each church face off to see which congregation will take home the Golden Crockpot, a vintage slow cooker painted with gold accents and topped with a fake plant.

Attendees receive samples of each soup and are asked to donate to their favorite. The church that raises the most money receives the kitschy trophy, which is kept in a place of honor until the next cook-off. Proceeds benefit the KAIC.

Bruce Kvittem, KAIC treasurer, said people get “just a little bit” competitive over the cook-off, but it’s all in good fun. A volunteer from Dale, he’s served on the committee for about 20 years. The committee includes pastors and laypeople from each church who support the intern’s work.

While the KAIC cook-off is a familiar tradition for the congregations, having started in 2015, it was a new experience for intern Brittany Mailleue.

“It’s pretty neat. I’ve been looking forward to seeing who gets the crown, and whether Vang gets to hold on or not,” she said.

Mailleue has been in the role since last August. The North Carolina native commutes from Le Sueur, where her husband Sam serves as a pastor. She goes from one church to the next, preaching, leading Bible studies and helping out wherever she’s needed.

Vang went into this year’s cook-off with back-to-back wins thanks to volunteer cook Paul Ramig, who previously won the Golden Crockpot with his elk stew and tomato basil soup. This time, he whipped up 16 quarts of clam chowder from a recipe he learned in culinary school. While his education no doubt helps, he’s been cooking long before that.

“My grandmother taught me how to cook when I was a little kid because I loved to eat. When you love to eat, you have to learn to cook. And food just brings people together,” said Ramig.

Vang pastor Paul Graham said he was hoping for a “three-peat” this year, but the top honor ultimately went to Holden.

As invested as he gets in the competition, Graham described a deeper purpose for the event.

“It gives people from the different churches a way to work together,” said Graham. “We’re trying to find ways to do more of this kind of thing, with the different churches sharing resources and sharing ministries.”

The gathering included Tim Coltvet, director of contextual learning at Luther Seminary, who saw the committee’s work in person.

“We’re really happy to come out and support the Kenyon area internship sites because they’ve been actually one of our longest partners,” said Coltvet. “It’s nice to have longstanding partnerships with people who know what it’s like to raise up leaders for the church and send them. They just do it very well here, these seven rural churches.”

Coltvet described internships as a “learning exchange,” where seminary students gain critical pastoral experience while bringing their own unique skills and knowledge to the congregations they serve. He noted many students are on their second or third career, bringing a variety of prior experience to the table.

As the soup ladles scraped the bottoms of the pots and the donation boxes filled up, Kevin Maring of the Hamilton-Maring Auction Group conducted a baked goods auction, bringing the showmanship of a professional auctioneer to the cozy fellowship hall.

As cold and rainy conditions prevailed outside, parishioners stayed warm with the variety of soups . Original committee members Doreen Finnesgaard and Rhana Olson were in attendance, enjoying an event they helped create.

Olson was accompanied by her friend Carol Fontaine, a Kenyon native who recently returned from Arizona after over 20 years. Back in her hometown Fontaine has joined First Evangelical Lutheran, the church she attended as a child. She was happy to partake in a tradition that’s sprung up in her absence.

“The soup was very good and it’s nice for people from the various churches to visit with each other,” said Fontaine.

The cook-off also gave people from all seven churches a chance to see the culmination of Mailleue’s internship project, a series of eight art pieces depicting the Stations of the Cross. Mailleue coordinated with artists from each church, completing one of the pieces herself.