Published September 18. 2026 02:00PM<\/p>\n
Forty-six Catholic priests across Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties are about to face a challenge no seminary prepared them for: cooking on camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cCooks with Collars,\u201d the Diocese of Allentown\u2019s online priest cooking competition, returned for its sixth year on Sept. 1, and runs through Sept. 30.<\/p>\n
Short videos of priests preparing their favorite dishes \u2014 in rectory kitchens, backyards and, occasionally, alongside the parishioners and pets who wander into the frame \u2014 will be posted at www.CookswithCollars.com. Local priests participating in this year\u2019s event includes the Revs. Michael Mullins of Sacred Heart in Palmerton, Eric Arnout of Assumption BVM in Slatington, Abraham Ha at St. Nicholas in Walnutport and Thomas Osei Gyau at St. Joseph Parish of the Panther Valley in Summit Hill,<\/p>\n
Viewers \u201cvote\u201d for their favorite by making a tax-deductible donation. Every voting dollar goes directly to that priest\u2019s parish or ministry.<\/p>\n
The competition raised more than $210,000 for local parishes last year alone, and its six-year total is expected to approach $1 million this September. It began in 2021, when pandemic restrictions forced churches to find new ways to connect with people at home. It has since drawn donors from across the country and news coverage from local television and newspapers to national outlets.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Top Fundraising Chef was Monsignor Tom Baddick of Notre Dame of Bethlehem, whose gourmet chili hot dogs brought in $44,485 toward replacing his church\u2019s crumbling front steps \u2014 a $100,000 project the parish nicknamed \u201cStairway to Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a priest a long time, and I\u2019ve never had a homily pull in thousands of views,\u201d Baddick said. \u201cChili dogs, apparently, are a different story. Our steps were falling apart and our people answered. That\u2019s the part I\u2019ll remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dishes range widely. In last year\u2019s competition, the Rev. Simon Kimaryo of St. Ann Parish in Emmaus cooked Fufu Ugali, a Tanzanian dish he learned in his home village, while his then-pastor, Monsignor Edward Coyle, stuck with a hot dog and mustard.<\/p>\n
Priests will compete this year in several categories: Top Chef, for the most dollars raised; Most Popular Chef, for the most-viewed video; and Top Deanery Chef, for the leading fundraiser in each of the diocese\u2019s five regional groupings of parishes, one for each county.<\/p>\n
New this year is the Commemorative 65th Anniversary Award, marking the Diocese of Allentown\u2019s 65th year. It will go to the priest whose video attracts the most individual $65 donations.<\/p>\n
Videos can be viewed and searched by parish or priest at www.CookswithCollars.com beginning Sept. 1. Winners will be announced in early October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published September 18. 2026 02:00PM Forty-six Catholic priests across Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties are about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-289887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}