Which of these Cape chefs makes the best pasta sauce? Vote, then take home a handmade bowl

It’s all about the bowls.

Well, the more than 300 twice-baked, handmade, no-two-alike ceramic bowls — plus the pasta sauce from six local chefs competing for bragging rights at Cape Cod Museum of Art’s seventh annual Mangia al Museo 2023 fundraiser.

Although the event is not until March 11, the 250 tickets are on sale now and going quickly, so museum officials are getting the word out, said Joyce K. Groemmer, marketing manager for the Dennis museum where the event will be held.

“And part of the biggest news is that we’re doing it again in person after two years of virtual events,” Benton Jones, the museum's director of art, said.

Kathleen Fowler, a Dennis estate attorney who had been taking the ceramics class for several years, said the idea for “Mangia!” evolved from chatting with fellow students.

“First, we made tea bowls for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony held here at the museum and that went wonderfully so we thought ‘Why not make pasta bowls?,'” Fowler said in an interview at the Monday night class where students have been making bowls for “Mangia!” since September.

“We want to make between 300 and 350 so everyone has a chance to choose,” Fowler said. “If you are the last person in, you don’t want to have just one bowl left to choose from.”

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Creating the handmade ceramic bowls

On Monday night, a half-dozen students were in the museum’s basement pottery classroom ― three or four of them “throwing” bowls of different shapes and sizes on wheels set up side-by-side.

“One thing that’s interesting,” Fowler said, “is that no one potter completes a bowl.”

Generally, people throw, trim (to get a steady bottom) or glaze, according to their preference and what needs doing at the moment, she explained. So, the bowls are not signed by individual potters because one person might make the shape while another chooses the colors and patterns.

Ceramics teacher Coco Raymond of Dennis Port walks visitors through the process that creates a durable, food-safe bowl that can go in the microwave and dishwasher ― serving at home long after the museum event is over.

The newly formed bowls, straight from the wheel, are called greenware and are the most fragile, easily broken or dissolved in water (mistakes are simply recycled into the next week’s working clay).

“You are interacting, literally, with the earth,” Raymond said, of pottery, which she said is the oldest art form known after cave paintings and dates back thousands of years. “You grow creatively while connecting with the world around you.”

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The second stage is bisque-firing, which hardens the clay. Potters then glaze the bisque-fired bowls.

“The glaze is liquid glass and (kiln) fired at 2,150 degrees, that makes a bowl that no longer absorbs water, is food-safe and somewhat durable,” Raymond explained.

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“Mangia!,” one of the museum’s three big annual fundraisers, is not only about raising money but about increasing awareness of art exhibits and classes available at Cape Cod Museum of Art, Groemmer said.

"They may come for the food, but they also have the opportunity to explore the galleries and see the current exhibitions," she wrote in an email. "Mangia also increases awareness of our Pottery Program."

To learn more about upcoming classes, including "Dinnerware on the Wheel with Coco Raymond," visit https://www.ccmoa.org/pottery.

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The event is also about what goes into the bowls (400 pounds of clay each year) and in the bowls (62.5 pounds of dry pasta annually.) This year's event is from 5 to 8 p.m. March 11 (first come, first bowled) and ticket holders will choose their bowls and then receive containers filled with penne pasta before moving on to sauce stations located throughout the museum.

Cape Cod pasta sauces, bread, cheese and Italian cookies

Ladling on the sauces, including vegan and gluten-free options, will be: David Whynot, owner of Lo Adoro Italian Market in Sandwich Village; Doug Foss, owner of Foss Farms, Forestdale; Carole Kelaher, owner of Corner of Yum, Dennis Village; Bill Donahue, owner, Cape Cod Kettle in Dennis; Tom Bayuk, lead chef of Treats Catering, Dennis Village and Marc Sievers, cookbook author and celebrity chef on “America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation.”

Guests will vote for their favorite and a winner will be announced that night.

A former winner, The Underground Bakery of Dennis, will provide homemade bread, cheese and Italian cookies. Donations are also being made by Josh Cellars Wine, Bad Martha Beer, Cape Cod Creamery Ice Cream and Cape Cod Macarons. Blue Central, with Lary Chaplan on violin and Frank Poranski on guitar, will provide music. There will be an online silent auction and gift basket raffle of cooking and dining items.

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When is Mangia al Museo and where can you buy tickets?

What: Mangia al Museo 2023

When: 5 to 8 p.m. March 11

Where: Cape Cod Museum of Art, 60 Hope Lane, Dennis, 508-385-4477

Tickets: $55 ($45 museum members), $25 for ages 12 and younger

Buy tickets: www.CCMoA.org/mangia

Contact Gwenn Friss at gfriss@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DailyRecipeCCT

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Things to do: March 11 art museum event ticket buys unique bowl, pasta