Archive: Around Town

Most people are happy to live in Lansing.  But it doesn't pay to be a chicken here, because of the huge popularity of chicken barbecues.  Many of Lansing's weekly barbecues use the famous and popular Cornell Sauce.  What you may not know is that sauce was developed by Lansing's own Bob Baker.  Baker passed away in 2006, but Lansing continues to celebrate him with the Baker Cup Chicken Barbecue Contest at the Lansing Harbor Festival.

"He'd love it.  He would love all the different ways to make the chicken," says Baker's daughter, Reenie Baker Sandsted, one of Baker's seven children.  That's what he was all about, using chicken in different ways.  He'd love this artistic way they're doing it today.  He'd be very pleased with it.  He was all about that.

The judges rate each dish on taste, presentation, and originality (left) Amy Wayne's entry (right)

Cayuga Radio Group's Lee Rayburn and Geoff Dunn, Lansing Community Council President Ed LaVigne, Harbor Festival Chair Karen Veaner, Lansing Supervisor Kathy Miller, and Village of Lansing Deputy Mayor Lynn Leopold judged the contest.  The contest challenges contestants to create chicken dishes that are judged 60% on taste, 20% on presentation, and 20% on originality.  The chefs' identities were not revealed to the judges as they scored the entries.  They were enthusiastic about all the contestants' chicken, barbecued by Katrina Binkewicz, Dave Hatfield, Pamela Silliman, and Amy Wayne.

Silliman won for the second year in a row, tying Dave Hatfield's record of two wins in a row.  Hatfield won in 2009 and 2010.  Robin Schuttenberg won in 2008 and Tyler Engles won the first year of the competition in 2007.

Baker initiated Cornell's Food Science program at the Poultry Department in 1957.  While there he developed more than 50 new ways to serve chicken, including many, like chicken nuggets, that are still popular.  In 1949 he opened Baker's Chicken Coop at the New York State Fair.  In 1999 President Bill Clinton visited the Chicken Coop with Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter Chelsea to get a taste of the famous chicken.

Baker was considered the leading expert in the world in chicken preparation.  That led to a funny incident.  One of the ingredients in Cornell Sauce is a raw egg.  Any bacteria that might be in the egg is killed by the high acid content of the other ingredients in the sauce.  But that explanation wasn't good enough for a young health inspector who came to Baker's Chicken Coop one year.

"When he found out we were using raw egg in the sauce I swear he turned white right on the spot!," Sandsted recalls.  "We explained it to him, and he said 'I have got to talk to Albany about this.'  I'm not sure whether he was going to close us down, but I think he was definitely going to tell us we had to change the recipe of the sauce."


Baker was the expert Albany consulted with.  He got a call two days later asking him to make the call on whether the raw egg could safely be used.  It could.

"It was very funny," Sandsted laughs.  "The Health Department actually came to us at the Chicken Coop and apologized to us."

Sandsted runs North Lansing's Baker's Acres that she opened with her father and mother, Jackie Baker, in 1980.  This year was the first time her schedule has allowed her to attend the Baker Cup competition.  She spent time watching the contestants prepare their dishes before the judging.

"I'm thrilled to see all the enthusiasm and beautiful dishes here," Sandsted says.  "I'm glad I was able to stop over."

The Baker Cup is a large trophy with the likeness of a chicken on top.  Each year the winner's name is added to a plaque on the trophy, which is displayed in the Lansing Town Hall.  Winners also have bragging rights for a year until the next competition.

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