Tickets are still on sale for the Leader Holiday Dinner.
The annual dinner, which benefits the Jefferson College Culinary Arts Program, will be held on Friday, Dec. 12, at the Jefferson College Field House in Hillsboro. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m.
Standard tickets cost $25 a person and include a six-course meal, live music, food demonstrations and a chance to sample and purchase the college culinary department’s infused vinaigrettes.
Tickets that include all of that, plus three drinks (beer or wine) from the Villa Antonio Winery in the Hillsboro area, are available for $45. To purchase a ticket, go to bit.ly/Leader-Dinner-2025.
Peggy Scott, publisher of Leader Publications, said it is best to purchase tickets early because the dinner sells out. Last year, about 150 dinner guests were able to attend and this year, the event is being moved to the field house to accommodate 200 people.
The college’s culinary students and staff will prepare and serve the dinner, which will include a main dish chosen by the culinary staff. For the other courses, the staff will prepare the five winning recipes from the annual Leader Holiday Recipe Contest.
Cooks of any age who live in Jefferson County, Eureka and Wildwood were invited to send in their favorite recipes to be entered in five categories: appetizer, soup, salad, side dish and dessert.
Judges will choose the top recipe in each category, and each of those five finalists will win $50 cash. Guests who attend the dinner will vote for their favorite of the five dishes, and that winner will receive an additional $250.
Since the dinner’s inception in 2014, it has been a collaboration between the college and Leader Publications and has raised about $55,000 for the Jefferson College Foundation. The money typically is used to send students to culinary competitions.
The winning recipes and as many more as space permits will be published in a Holiday Recipe special section on Nov. 26.
Last year’s winners were Sherrie Crane of Barnhart for her Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta; Terri Becker of Festus for her Strawberry Feta Salad; Linda Martin of Hillsboro for her Wild Rice Soup; Aubrey Bronskill of Eureka for Holiday Potatoes Romanoff and Betty Gottfried of Cedar Hill for her German Apple Cake. Attendees chose Martin’s soup as the winner of the grand prize.