CLEVELAND HEIGHTS — Its a busy weekend in the kitchen at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral with preparations underway for the church’s Lenten fish fry.
After receiving around 800 orders last week, volunteers are again cooking each fish from scratch.
George Stathopoulos is bringing his own culinary skills to the table, as a former restaurant owner, and now executive chef at the cathedral.
He said cost was a top concern for the church this year, especially for one of the fish fry’s main ingredients: eggs.
“[We use] liquid eggs, a pasteurized mix, and it comes frozen or refrigerated. So we ordered preorders…like a month ago because we know the prices are going to go higher,” Stathopoulos said.
Ordering liquid egg cartons in bulk ahead of lent season has helped them keep prices low for customers, he said. But, not all menu items escaped the impact of the recent spike in grocery prices.
“[For] desserts, they're using eggs, real eggs and and the the prices went up” he said. “Everybody went up, you know, the price of butter because we use fresh butter…but we tried to keep the prices down.”
The price increase came as a shock to some sweet treat lovers.
“My favorite cookies went up from, $10 a dozen to the 12,” said Dean Peters who is a member of the church.
Peters has been a parishioner for more than 50 years, and for the last 17 seasons, he’s served as a volunteer.
Even though this year comes with a higher cost, he said the group’s mission remains the same.
“The one thing that stays the same is the cost of preparation,” Peters said. “You know, the volunteers get all paid the same thing, and that's like zero...we're happy to do it.”
He said the church is opening its doors to all members of the community.
“This is not just for our parishioners. And often, you know, most of the time, the community at large are the ones that are supporting us,” he said.
