Staff photo / Bob Coupland Gianna Morataya, 9, of Howland, gets a sample of pasta fagioli from Barry Franks, right, at the third annual Men Who Cook fundraiser Sunday at the Medici Museum in Howland. The event had 16 cooks preparing 14 different items. Frank’s soup was selected as Judge’s Choice winner. The third annual fundraiser supports local Boy Scouts.

HOWLAND — Area men put their cooking skills to work Sunday afternoon making their favorite meal items as a way to raise funds for local Boy Scouts.

The third annual Men Who Cook was hosted by the Medici Museum in Howland, where 16 “chefs” prepared 14 different meal items for the public to sample. The event drew more than 200 people.

Bob Sincich, committee chairman for the fundraiser and a past Scoutmaster, said the event is a fun way for local men to share their culinary skills while raising funds to help Boy Scout Troop 28 and 122 attend summer camp and participate in other activities throughout the year.

“We asked men from the community who have a passion for Scouting to participate by making a dish, some of which are their favorite dishes and some of their family’s favorite recipes. We have some, like Grandma Santucci’s sauce and the Vansuch family kolachi,” Sincich said.

In addition to judges from the community, celebrity judges also participated.

“People could sample as many as they can. The last two times we held this the average number of dishes sampled was 10,” Sincich said.

He said in 2019 and 2020, the event took place at Howland United Methodist Church, but was moved this year to the Medici Museum because of its Norman Rockwell Boy Scout artwork.

“Norman Rockwell would have never thought in the 1930s and 1940s that we would be having a Scout fundraiser surrounded by 66 of his Scout paintings,” Sincich said.

Jeff Ward, who was selected as the People’s Choice winner in 2019 and 2020, said he prepared chicken cordon bleu casserole with mornay sauce.

“This is my third year of working on getting another People’s Choice award. I am hopeful this will do it,” Ward said.

Barry Franks made pasta fagioli, which he said his grandfather has made for many years.

“He made this for years and years, and we all loved it,” Franks said.

Howland Trustee Matt Vansuch made kolachi from a family recipe.

“This nut kolachi has been handed down in my family. Everyone loves it,” he said.

Aleksander Walton and Michael McFadden with Boy Scout Troop 122 made mountain man breakfast casserole.

“The cheese in this is always what makes anything with potatoes a success. It is a modified version of a Scout camping classic,” Walton said.

Noel Hardy, owner of Noel’s Car Toys, along with WFMJ-TV 21 anchor Derek Steyer and Dr. Anthony Russo, medical director at Steward Medical Group’s Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, were the celebrity judges.

“It was very hard to decide. Everything was so good,” Hardy said.

“We all had the same top five, but in different order and then had to rank them. We all then went over and decided who the winner was,” Steyer said.

Sincich said the Judge’s Choice winner was Franks and his pasta fagioli and the People’s Choice winner was Jack Finch with an eye of round roast with red wine gravy and mushrooms.

Enjoying the food was the Stefurak family of Howland with parents Andy and Angela saying their preference was the stuffed pepper soup and kielbasa, while sons Andrew, 6, and Ashton, 5, said they liked the potato soup.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com