'Allez cuisine!' Judges swap robes for aprons at cooking contest

They dish out justice every day, but on June 10, select Michigan judges dished out something else.

The inaugural Culinary Challenge — a benefit for the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan Foundation (WLAM Foundation) scholarship fund, Alternatives for Girls and Crossroads for Youth — brought district, circuit and appellate court judges to the Oakland County home of Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Elizabeth Gleicher and attorney Mark Granzotto.

It was the successor to WLAM Foundation’s two-decades-old women-lawyers-vs.-women-judges charity softball game, which had waned in participation in recent years.

And Michigan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly called it a more ideal alternative to running the bases. “We [judges] always lost,” she said. “We even brought in ringers, and we still lost.”

Although she was there to support her fellow judges, Kelly did, however, have to forfeit directly competing. She was hoping to present her “Oatmeal Delight” to the crowd, but had to arrive empty-handed because the recent metro Detroit power outage put her kitchen out of order.

No matter, as there was more than enough bite-sized samples to go around, and there were no rules against “buying” votes. Quite the opposite, as attendees — including attorneys — could purchase as many voting tickets as they wished, then dispense them into the bags that corresponded to the dish of choice.

In the end, the “World’s Ugliest Brownies” were the winner. The soft, gooey, walnut-speckled treats came courtesy of the Hon. Denise Langford Morris of Oakland County Circuit Court.

To paraphrase a sports adage, they may have been ugly, but a win’s a win.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Michigan Lawyers Weekly Associate Editor Douglas J. Levy, who authored this post.