More than 150 people attended the 2024 Leader Holiday Dinner, held Dec. 13 in Jefferson College’s Viking Room.
The dinner is sponsored by Leader Publications and the Jefferson College Foundation.
For the dinner, students from Jefferson College’s Culinary Arts program, under the direction of Chef Garrett Miller, prepared and served the five winning recipes from the Leader Holiday Recipe Contest, as well as the bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin entree.
The five recipe finalists 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.
Each of the finalists received $50, and Holiday Dinner attendees picked the grand prize winner to receive an additional $250. All five dishes garnered votes, but Martin’s Wild Rice Soup took the grand prize, receiving 46 votes.
Martin, 75, said when she makes her soup it is not as salty and thick as the soup served at the dinner, adding that the culinary students did a great job preparing it, though.
She said all the dishes were good, so she was surprised to win.
Martin describes the soup as comfort food, and many of the diners agreed. The creamy soup included wild rice, cream of potato soup, bacon, onion, mushrooms, chicken and cheddar cheese.
Many diners raved about the flavor.
“Great taste and consistency; flavors blended so well,” one guest wrote.
“Soup and side dish were a tossup, both excellent,” another diner said. “The dessert was also awesome. It would have my vote if it were a dessert-only contest.”
“All of the creamy, stick-to-your ribs dishes made this meal very satisfying,” another diner said. “One of the best (dinners) I’ve been to.”
Trailing the soup were the side dish and then the appetizer.
In addition to the food, the dinner included food demonstrations by culinary students, entertainment by the Jefferson College Jazz Combo and a chance to win one of 32 door prizes provided by students in the Jefferson College Area Technical School.
Since its inception in 2014, the dinner has given students a chance to showcase their skills and has raised more than $24,000 for the Jefferson College Foundation, with the money typically used to send students to culinary competitions across the region.
Check out the finalist's recipes here:
The Leader Holiday Dinner is slated for Friday, Dec. 13, in the Viking Room at Jefferson College. Recipes from the five finalists in the paper…
Leader Holiday Dinner 2024
Shepherd Krepps, Carl Curtois, Oliver Nice, Jude Short and Hank Shrader entertain the crowd.
Students bring out the first course of roasted red pepper bruschetta.
Sherrie Crane, pictured with her husband, of Barnhart submitted her recipe of roasted red pepper bruschetta.
Student Haila Eskew chats with her table during the dinner.
Student Kendall Johnson serves the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin.
Aubrey Bronskill, pictured with her date, of Eureka was the side dish finalist for her holiday potatoes romanoff.
The second winner of the metal signs receives his prize.
An attendee at table 17 is excited about winning a prize from the woodworking program.
Tyler McDaniel carries the chair he won in the raffle.
