Politics & Government

Mayor to Test Her Cooking Skills in State Competition

Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool will participate in the New Jersey State League of Municipalities' "Mayors' Healthy Cookoff" today.

Mayor Nancy Malool admits that she’s no Martha Stewart, but this afternoon she’ll put forth her culinary best when she competes in the New Jersey State League of Municipalities’ “Mayors’ Healthy Cook-Off."

Founded in 2007, the “Mayors’ Healthy Cook-Off” is an initiative that was started by the league and the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute as a way to encourage mayors to be “champions of community health.”

Each year since, mayors from across the state have come together to compete and see who has the best healthy summer recipe.

This is Malool's first year participating in the event. She'll be competing against four other Central New Jersey mayors: Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac, South Amboy Mayor John O'Leary, North Brunswick Mayor Francis Womack and Haledon Mayor Domenick Stampone. Celebrity judges include New York Jets all-time return leader Bruce Harper and Senator Joseph Vitale.

“Cooking’s not my forte, but we’ll see,” Malool said. "I'm a pretty competitive person, but this is something just for fun."

The mayors get about 1 1/2 hours to cook their dish. They are then judged on four categories: “Healthiest,” “Best-Tasting,” “Best Presentation” and “Best Overall.”  Wegmans Supermarket provides cooking facilities and all ingredients needed.

Malool asked a friend who's a chef to help her find a recipe. She finally settled on "pork with apple fennel salad."

"It doesn't sound that hard, and the pork basically cooks itself," she said.

Last year’s winners from the Central New Jersey competition were Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso’s “Sal’s Summertime Salad” (Best Presentation); Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola’s Chickpea Salad with Poached Tuna (Healthiest); Pennington Mayor Tony Persichilli’s Whole Wheat Pasta with Turkey Sausage and Broccoli Rabe (Best Tasting); and former Harrison Mayor Mike Koescler’s Chicken Piccata (Best Overall).

According to Emily Littman, director of the Mayors’ Wellness Campaign, the real purpose of the cook-off is to give the participating mayors an example to take back to their towns about how to eat healthy.

“This is meant to be fun, to encourage the public that you can cook healthy, and that it can taste good,” she said.

The cook-off is just one of several initiatives of the Mayors’ Wellness Campaign, Littman said. Mayors across the state are taking their wellness campaigns to the next level by starting programs in their towns for youth, employees, seniors and the community as a whole.

"We want to prevent and stop obesity, and increase physical activity and awareness," Littman said. “There’s been a lot of 5k walks and programs in the schools. And in the urban areas, we’ve tried to implement walking school buses, to encourage kids to walk to school instead of taking the bus.”

Malool says she’s wanted to explore becoming a part of the Mayors’ Wellness Campaign for awhile now. The cook-off, she said, will hopefully be a way to start exploring other ways to promote healthy living in Scotch Plains.

“It’s a good jumping off point for me, I think,” she said.

The "Mayors' Healthy Cook-Off" will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at  Wegmans Supermarket in Woodbridge, N.J. It is open to the public.


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