Cooking Demos Delight Lakewood Community

LAKEWOOD, OH — Necessity is the mother of invention — or, in this case, delightful cooking videos.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Lakewood Community Relations Advisory Commission normally holds a potluck dinner to celebrate the community's diversity. Due to COVID-19, the decision was made to move the event online.

"Lakewood has such a wonderfully diverse community. One of the best aspects of the potluck are all the delicious dishes people bring representing their unique heritages and backgrounds," said Jon Gromek, a member of the Commission.

But how does one hold a potluck virtually?

After intense brainstorming, the Commission settled on a solution. Encourage residents to order from Lakewood restaurants and teach everyone how to make a variety of meals. Bring the potluck into Lakewood's kitchens through laptops, cell phones and meal delivery services.

And the cooking demos have been easy as pie to make.

"It's been as simple as folks using their smartphones or laptops, using free editing software to put it together, and we've been putting it out on our Facebook page," Gromek told Patch.

Gromek said the community has responded enthusiastically to the cooking demonstrations. Residents have reached out with questions and Commission members have volunteered to share recipes of their own.

"It's been fun!" he said.