This was another amazing fall event.

Norbert and Holly hosted the sixth “Soup and Friends Night” on 11/11/2017 in “My Chef Lara’s” home on the East Side of Providence and more than 45 people came and attended the event by bringing a bowl, a spoon, a friend and a story.

The kitchen was set up with four different soups:

Shrimp and Corn Chowder (winner of last year’s and all previous events)

Canadian Cheddar Cheese and Beer Soup

Vegetarian Hearty Creamy Vegetable Stew (new entry)

Russian Beef Beet Borscht

All guests were asked to rate the soups by taste and two of the four soups were rated more than 4.3 out of 5 possible stars. However, the winner of all previous 5 soup nights “Shrimp and Corn Chowder” only came in second. We actually crowned a new winner this year, which was the “Canadian Cheddar Cheese and Beer Soup”, which had more first place votes than the previous winner. This new winner now will be on the menu for next year’s soup night and we are looking forward to it.

Third place was the vegetarian entry “Hearty Creamy Vegetable Stew” with a very respectful result of 4 out of 5 stars.

Coming in 4th place was the Russian Beef Beet Borscht, which also won the prize for the most “controversial soup”. This soup had several first place votes but also last place votes and collected also points from the middle of the voting spectrum. People either liked beets a lot…….or not.

By the end of the evening almost all of the soups were consumed (2.5 to 3 gallons each) and there were, to the enjoyment of the last guests some leftover soups to take home.

Prizes were given out for the most interesting bowl, the biggest spoon and the furthest distance traveled. Each of the prize winners received a quart of their “soup of choice” and a booklet with the recipes of all four soups. Pictures of the event can be found at mycheflara.com.

There was another winner which needs mentioning, which was the “Ginger Joy Dip”. Although there was no official voting planned for the dips several guests mentioned its incredible taste and gave highest marks. We will make sure it will be available in future events with My Chef Lara.

During the evening there were approximately 11 gallons of soup consumed and more than $650 in donations was given to the RI Food Bank on Monday 11/13/2017.

All of the participants were happy with the event and Norbert and Holly are already planning for next years Soup and Friends Night on the second Saturday in November 2018.

“This was another awesome My Chef Lara event” commented Norbert, “the response we received was overwhelmingly positive. It was so great to have neighbors, business partners, friends of all age groups together in our home and having a great time. We are definitely repeating this next year. Thanks to everyone who attended and made this event an awesome experience. It could not have happened without you.”