Armed with her rice cooker, two pots, two daughters, and a team of five other residents, Assunta Mancini is getting ready to take on Keswick’s professional chefs once again.

Assunta’s team won the Cook for the Cure event in 2014 at Cedarvale Lodge Retirement and Care Community, where she has been a resident since October 2013. After entering for the first time last year, she’s now back with a new dish and a strong resolve to face off against professional chefs from four local restaurants.

The competition will run the evening of October 20, where up to two hundred hungry guests will be eagerly waiting to taste the competing dishes and vote for a winner. Cedarvale Lodge is one of six Sienna homes running the competition this year, with a combined fundraising goal of $25,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Last year, nine Sienna homes raised over $42,400 for the Foundation, with Cedarvale donating over $7,500 of this from their event.

Assunta’s winning dish went the traditional Italian route, with made homemade fettuccine using 40 eggs, and three hand-powered machines in constant use to churn out the pasta. Five hundred meatballs and 25 bottles of sauce later, she was ready to enter her food in the competition.

Leisure consultant Emily Curcuruto helped decorate the table in an Italian theme, and bought all the required ingredients.

The award has also given Assunta the coveted title of being the first resident to win one of these annual cook-off competitions.

“It was a lot of work,” she said, but this clearly hasn’t deterred her spirit or determination to get back in the ring. Exchanging her winning recipe of meatballs and fettuccine for her legendary beef stew, she is confident she can win again this year with the same trusted team behind her.