Sandina Polgar, Mrs. Michigan United States® 1996

"Chef brings Cooking with kids to TV" - by Jennifer Mitchell
(Photo by Bruce Tims)

Reprinted from The News-Herald (January 21, 2004)

TRENTON -- Using a dash of determination and a pinch of creativity, a former Mrs. Michigan is simmering up a secret for success.

Sandina "Sandi" Polgar plans to share that recipe with the younger set of WTVS Channel 56 viewers Friday.

The 45-year-old personal chef will be featured, along with several children, in a new television series designed to encourage physical activity in children.

The program aired for the first time Friday.

"The whole idea is to give you easy, inexpensive things that you and your kids can do," said Jeff Forster, WTVS vice president of production.

That's where Polgar comes in.

In 1996, she was crowned as Mrs. Michigan. At the time, she was a caterer. Soon after her pageant obligations ended she decided to spice things up and opened her own aptly named personal chef business, Dinner with the Mrs.

"I really love to cook," Polgar said. "It really seems like it's a dying art."

That love is a necessary ingredient in her business. Polgar spurns canned and packaged goods and goes the extra mile, growing her own vegetables and herbs.

"Just to know that it's something I grew in my garden and I can put it on my table is so fulfilling," she said.

WTVS wanted Polgar to bring some of that simplicity to the new production. Cooking simple meals was one way to get children up and about. Polgar agreed and gladly accepted.

Although she generally does her cooking out of her clients' homes, she made an exception last Friday and invited six children and a camera crew into her own massive, custom-built kitchen.

Amid the cameras, she and the children made macaroni and cheese in her convection oven, green beans on her Viking gas stove and even torched toast.

"I knew right away what I wanted to make," Polgar said. "Kids think (macaroni and cheese) comes in a box and that it's orange."

Polgar threw out a few facts, such as how yellow cheese has been dyed and how carbohydrates are a good source of energy, and then, to the delight of the children, she pulled out her kitchen torch and grilled toast with the open flame.

"It was really fun," Polgar said. "We ate everything."

Not only was it fun, but it also was educational, Consuelo Ordo of Dearborn said.

Her 9-year-old son, Conor, was one of the stars.

"He loved it," Ordo said. "Sandi is his aunt and she is always cooking at all the family functions and he loves her food."

Besides loving food, she said, Conor also loves to cook.

"We make pancakes together," Ordo said. "He always makes omelets. Kids love to cook in the kitchen."

The program, a weekly half-hour show, will air at 5 p.m. Friday and at 9 a.m. Saturday. Children between 6 and 12 and their parents are the target audience.

WTVS also will host a monthly outdoor event in conjunction with the show.

The next event, old-fashioned ice harvesting, will be held at Kensington Metropark, 2240 W. Buno Road, Milford, on Jan. 31.

"They'll cut ice and shave ice -- the way people used to do it," Forster said.

For more information, call 248.685.1561.