It was a perfect day and patrons filled the Moody’s Event Center at White Marsh for delicious foods, entertainment and camaraderie. The ninth annual Black Men Cooking event, “A Black History Celebration” sponsored by the Epsilon Eta Chapter of the Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc., was underway. Twenty-six chefs-of-the-day were settled in and ready to serve the ticket-holders.

This article is the first part of a two-segment story on the event, starting with the young cooks and servers. Since 1981, when seven women met to form the Epsilon Eta Chapter in Gloucester, the membership has grown and its purpose of helping others has increased greatly, especially in the field of education. “The funds raised from this year’s event go to our scholarship fund,” said Marilyn Morris, chapter president. She added, “We consider all of the men who help as the men of Iota and we like for the children to be involved. We refer to them as FILs (future Iota leaders).” This year’s event certainly proved th...