Area politicians, civic and community leaders will roll up their sleeves to serve and prepare dishes for the Southern University at Shreveport Foundation’s 15th Annual Gentlemen’s Cooking Classic.

The event will be 6 to 9 p.m June 21 at the Shreveport Convention Center. The theme for this year’s event is “Southern Cooking Meets Zydeco.”

“The primary purpose of the event is that it is designed to raise funds for scholarships for Southern University in Shreveport. We solicit business men, community leaders and regular people as well as our Lil/Junior Chefs to prepare their favorite dish for 500 people,” Frank Williams, executive director of the Southern University at Shreveport Foundation, said. “Our goal each year is to try to get between 50 and 60 chefs, and 25 Lil/Junior Chefs.”

The foundation selects individuals in the community and gives them the title of Honorary Southern Gentleman. The Honorary Southern Gentlemen at this year’s event will be attorney S.P. Davis, Pastor Joe Grant, Pastor Dennis Everett, Caddo Parish District Attorney Charles Scott, Mr. Wayne Brown and attorney Neil Erwin.

“The caveat is to try to encourage them, since they are the ‘Honorary Gentlemen,’ to invite friends and family to increase the attendance of the event,” Williams said. “We ask the Reverends, for example, to encourage their congregation members to buy tickets. We have grown to about 1500 to 1600 people each year.”

The Lil/Junior Chefs participate with an adult in the booth, and they make their favorite dishes as well.

“We encourage fathers to be in the booth to serve, but sometimes we have grandfathers or uncles who participate,” Williams said.

The Lil Chefs are chosen through coordinator/recruiter Dottie Dell and Chef Ernest Palmisano and his wife Tina Palmisano, owners of Ernest’s Orleans Restaurant in Shreveport, will once again serve as chair and co-chair of the Lil Chefs.

The event is designed to allow people to arrive casually dressed, eat as much as they like and enjoy Zydeco music that will be piped in.

“At 7:30 p.m. we will have completed the judging for the many different categories for adults and for our Lil/Junior chefs, as well as an award for booth decoration,” Williams said. There will also be a Lee Michael’s Award given to those who have been philanthropic to the Southern University at Shreveport Foundation through the years.

The Gentlemen’s Cooking Classic has hosted more than 70 chefs and thousands of patrons in the past and by far is the Foundation’s most successful fundraising event. Some past participants have included Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover, former Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower, former U.S. Congressman Jim McCrery and Sherriff Steve Prator to name a few.

It is through the efforts of the distinguished gentlemen and local support that the Southern University at Shreveport foundation has been able to re-invest more than $250,000 in scholarships for the purpose of educating students in the Shreveport-Bossier City and surrounding areas.

“Know that every time someone buys a ticket, that money goes to try to help some individual to be awarded a scholarship and further their education,” Williams said. “The whole process of the foundation being started in 1999 was to make sure that those students – be it young, elderly or middle aged – if they have the desire to go to school and need financial help, our job is to make that happen. We are much more concerned with the 2.0, 2.5 grade point average primarily because we feel that the 3.0, 3.5, 4.0 grade point averages will be able to get scholarships. We want to make sure that person who didn’t make that level who may want to go school may have the opportunity to do so.”

Tickets are $30 for adults and $10 for children 6-10 years of age; children 5 years and younger are free with a paid adult. Tickets can be purchased at the Southern University at Shreveport Foundation office located at 610 Texas St., Suite 400 and Southern University at Shreveport campus, 3050 MLK Jr. Drive, Shreveport.