And the golden spatula award goes to...

Champion Steve Wilke-Shapiro
preparing for the competition.

Steve Wilke-Shapiro!  The Thrilla in the Skillet event webpage explains Steve as a 5 foot 8, 160 pound potato-gratin’, latke-makin’, salt-shakin’, taste-testin’, no-restin’ potato pancake frier!  And he took home the gold last night....The golden spatula that is!  He was up against Doug Jotzke.  Doug is a latke-fryin’, no-onion-cryin’, homegrown-egg-crackin’, Mogen-David-drinkin’, no-holds-barred potato pancake frier.

The official judges.

A latke in all of it's
greasy glory.

The event started as a friendly Hanukkah challenge between friends and turned into a fun event that in it's first year raised over $1200 to benefit the DMARC food pantry.  General admission tickets ran $10 and VIP tickets, that allowed you to get into the kitchen and be a part of the action, ran $17.  A small price for such a cool event with lots of added love from the families of the competitors.  Along with the latkes they served up egg salad, veggies, fruit salad and lots of donated desserts.  Your admission also included a drink ticket.  I may have had a hand in inventing the newest trendy drink in town, called "The Hatton House".  It's a mix of fruit punch, sprite and Templeton Rye.  It's the newest craze I'm sure.

Eat, Play, Love Des Moines fans
(and new potato latke fans) Deb
and Steve enjoying the event.

Silent auction items.

The coveted golden
spatula.

About 50 people came to eat, vote and support DMARC at the Historic Hatton House in Des Moines. The air was heavy with onion and smoke as old friends and new mingled and some even tried potato latkes for the very first time!  The event was so well received that they hope to move to a larger venue to accommodate more voters and raise even more money next year,





What a fun event for a great cause.  Follow them on Facebook for updates on next years event and to follow the golden spatula to see who it gets passed to!  Everyone likes a latke and Steve and Doug make some awesome ones!