This was another amazing event.

Lara and Norbert had their fifth Friends and Soup Night on 11/12/2016 in “My Chef Lara’s” home on the East Side of Providence and more than 60 people came and attended the event by bringing a bowl, a spoon and a friend.

The kitchen was set up with four different soups:

• Shrimp and Corn Chowder (winner of last year’s event)
• Russian Beef, Beet Borscht (new entry)

• Baby Kale and Lentil, vegetarian soup (new entry)
• Greek Lemon & Rice soup (Avgolemono, new entry)

All guests were asked to rate the soups by taste and two of the four soups were rated more than 4.5 out of 5 possible stars and even after three recounts of all of the votes there still was no clear winner. Actually it was so close, that we decided that it would be a TIE between the Allstar “Shrimp and Corn Chowder” and the new entry “Russian Beef, Beet Borscht”. BOTH of these soups will be now on the menu for next year’s soup night and we are looking forward to it.

Third place was the vegetarian entry “Baby Kale and Lentil Soup” with a very respectful result of 4 out of 5 stars.

Coming in 4^th place was the Greek Chicken, Lemon & Rice Soup (Avgolemono), which also won the prize of 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 it a lot…….or not.

By the end of the evening all of the soups were consumed (2.5 gallons each) and there were, to the disappointment of several guests unfortunately no leftovers 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 on our facebook page and at mycheflara.com.

There was another winner which needs mentioning, which was the “Pineapple Curry 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 10 gallons of soup consumed and more than $700 were donated and will be given to the RI Food Bank on Monday 11/14/2016.

All of the participants were happy with the event and Lara and Norbert are already planning for next years Soup and Friends Night on the second Saturday in November 2017.

“I did not really know what to expect” commented Lara, “but the response we received was overwhelmingly positive. It was so great to have neighbors, business partners, friends of all age groups together in our house and having a great time. We are definitely repeating this next year. Thank you to everyone who attended and made this event a fabulous experience. It could not have happened without you.”