Second Annual Chef’s Challenge Shines Spotlight On Cape Pantries

CHATHAM – On June 4, the second annual Chef’s Challenge was held at Pate’s Restaurant. The Lower Cape Outreach Council created the event last year as a way to raise funds and create awareness of its mission. I was honored and pleased to be on the judges’ panel. 

Here’s the premise of the challenge: Three chefs shop at one of the LCOC’s food pantries and are given a $20 stipend in order to create a special dish to be prepared at the event. It certainly was eye-opening to see and taste the results. It was hard to pick a winner; each dish was delicious. Two of the chefs, Orlando Hemmings of Chatham Moods and Lisa Whelan of the Dancing Spoons food truck took advantage of the seafood donated to the pantries by the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative, while Tyler Bridges of the Mad Minnow and 3 Monkeys created the only non-seafood dish. 

Hemmings’ “Wicked Cheeks” were sauteed, Pringles potato chip-coated skate cheeks with an orange beurre blanc, served with sweet peas and cheesy rice. It was so tasty, and the only reason I left any on my plate was because I knew there were two more plates coming! 

Whelan also chose the skate cheeks but she served them as a “fried skate cheek tostada.” The cheeks were coated in a crispy cornmeal crust and served over a honey-orange slaw with fresh avocado, and was also delicious. 

Bridges decided to make a yummy “stovetop chili” served over long-grain rice and garnished with sour cream, scallions and shaved cheddar cheese. 

Each dish was creatively presented. Myself and my fellow judges Larry Egan, editor of Edible Cape Cod, Gwenn Friss, food editor of the Cape Cod Times, and guest judge LCOC board member Nancy Chabot of Brewster, were told to judge by “presentation, taste and creativity.” This was tough! 

The winner was crowned just before the live auction (by a close four point spread between the three, according to Brad Carlson, a LCOC board director). The winner was Chef Tyler Bridges for his chili. 

The challenge was fun, but the event first and foremost was a fundraiser for the LCOC’s services including food pantries, financial assistance, clothing and more that they provide for those in need. The council serves the eight towns of the Lower and Outer Cape. 

“In 2024, the LCOC provided services valued at over $3.5 million, which was a 20 percent increase over 2023,” said Katie Wibby, the council's executive director. “Demand for all our services has increased, but the most significant increase was in our food pantries, which has been consistent for the past three years. In January 2022, when I started at LCOC our nine emergency food pantries served less than 400 household visits per month. In April 2025, the same nine pantries served 1,752 household visits.” 

She continued, “It’s also important to note that our pantries receive about 80 percent of our food from the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) and according to their reports, the demand for food pantries overall may increase as much as 77 percent due to anticipated cuts to federal assistance programs. Additionally, the federal government has also cut support to GBFB, including $2.3 million worth of food from the USDA. To combat these cuts, GBFB has used $1 million in reserves in May and June this year. In the coming years, we anticipate much greater demand and less resources to meet those needs.”

Council food pantries are located in Harwich at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, in Chatham at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, in Brewster at the Brewster Baptist Church and in Orleans at the Orleans Methodist Church and the LCOC office at 19 Brewster Cross Rd. LCOC also collaborates with the Family Pantry of Cape Cod.

To aid the pantries and the other functions of the LCOC, there were silent and live auctions with auctioneer Dan McLaughlin. Auction items were donated by the Wequassett Inn and Resort, Cape Air, Ocean Edge, Geraldi’s Restaurant, Chatham Bars Inn, Pate’s, Cape Sailing Charters, Cape Cod RTA, Wychmere Beach Club, Buffy’s/Chatham Ice Cream Bars, the Chatham Creative Arts Center, Cape Cod Beach Chair, the ArtNova Gallery and others. 

The most popular silent auction item, two Coldplay World Tour tickets, was donated by Jeff and Jean Piazza. The event was sponsored by many of the auction donors, along with Friends Marketplace, Cape Cod 5, Cape Associates, the Wendy Hinden and Kathryn Livelli Charitable Fund, Cape Dreams, The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, Shaw’s supermarket, Community Web Development, Sunderland Printing, Cape Cod’s 102.3 and 106.5 and Mainsail Events, which also coordinated the event. The Pate’s staff did a fabulous job with the crowd of 150-plus, passing around hors d'oeuvres, a signature cocktail and champagne. 

 At deadline the final figure of the amount raised was not yet available. But everyone who attended left feeling they attended a wonderful evening for a wonderful cause. 

 For more information about the Lower Cape Outreach Council, call 774-722-0209 or visit lcoutreach.org.