BY MAURA DOWGIN
Staff Writer
EDISON — Old family recipes will be shared at the seventh annual Taste of Middlesex.
The event, which showcases local restaurants, will also give township schoolchildren a chance to share their recipes and make money for their school. This year’s event is planned for March 29.
About 60 children from the Thomas Jefferson Middle School art classes are making a cookbook that will be sold for $5 during the event, said Gloria Dittman, president of the Edison Chamber of Commerce.
The children not only learned a recipe and illustrated a book, they also learned about the culture of their classmates.
"It was interesting because I got to see a lot of people’s recipes, and I learned a lot about their culture," said Brittany Buresch, seventh grade, whose recipe for Orange and Creme Pie recipe appears in the book.
Students looked at each other’s recipes, which included traditional Chinese, Italian and other cultural dishes, Brittany said.
The project, though, almost never happened.
"I wanted to have a famous chef come and do a cookbook signing but no one responded," Dittman said.
Since the famous chefs decided not to participate in the event, Dittman recruited the schoolchildren.
Students in sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade art classes were given an assignment in late December to get a family recipe for the book, said Stacy Bovadikov, the school’s art teacher.
"They were to bring in a recipe from home," she said. The children also wrote a little story about the recipe’s origin or an experience they had making the dish.
The students illustrated the book with pictures of the food, which includes such delicious dishes as Rocking Turkey Burgers, Ma’s Spaghetti Sauce, vegetable fried rice and rice pudding.
There were students who made their illustrations realistic and others who did cartoon-type pictures, Brittany said.
The book’s cover was designed by Eun Dee Yun, an eighth-grader, Bovadikov said. The cover artwork features a fork, spoon and many different meals such as a turkey dinner.
The cover artwork will be in color, with the rest of the book in black and white, she said.
The recipe books are being professionally put together and will have a spine for durability and ease of use, said Dittman.
All of the proceeds from the book will go to the Thomas Jefferson Middle School art department for "extra art supplies," Bovadikov said.
"This is a little something extra for something special," she said. The department hopes to get some computer software art programs with the money.
Brittany said she was happy her work was going to benefit the art department because art is her favorite subject.
While this is the first year that the students are creating a cookbook, in past years the art department has auctioned furniture the students painted during the Taste of Middlesex, Bovadikov said.
The department and the chamber decided furniture is too large and bulky and that the cookbooks may be a better idea for this year’s event.
The event, sponsored by the Edison Chamber of Commerce, will be held on March 29 at the Pines Manor. Tickets are $40 in advance, $50 at the door and $25 for senior citizens age 60 and over.