Mojakka Cook-Offs split between Cloquet, Finland

Organizers of two separate Northland Mojakka Cook-Offs this weekend have taken their competition out of the kitchen, with each claiming to be part of the “annual” Mojakka Cook-off that began seven years ago.

A feud between Tim Winker and Bert Whittington, who once collaborated on the St. Urho’s Day celebration in Cloquet, has sent them separate ways, each with harsh words for the other.

A Lake County News Chronicle report published Friday in the News Tribune shared the details of Winker’s St. Urho’s Day event, with the headline: “Mojakka Cook-Off moves to Finland.”

Not so, says Whittington, owner of the Northeastern Hotel in Cloquet. That’s where the cook-off — Winker’s brainchild — had been held for seven years, including last year, with the eighth scheduled for Sunday.

“If he wants to hold an event in Finland, that’s fine,” Whittington said. “But what he said about it being canceled is not true.”

Winker on Friday claimed Whittington told him last year he didn’t want to hold it at his bar because of renovations, so he deemed it canceled, even going so far as to tell the Pine Journal in Cloquet that Whittington’s event was canceled. When Whittington saw that, he and Winker had a falling out and haven’t spoken since.

“I feel badly that he took it on,” Winker said. “It was originally my idea. In some respects, coming up with the Mojakka Cook-Off is intellectual property.”

But mojakka was definitely made and enjoyed at a cook-off in Cloquet last year. Friday’s story prompted a flurry of calls to Whittington to verify this year’s event is still on.

“His event, with him in it, was not held [last year] — but it was held,” Whittington said. “And it will be held this weekend.”

Duluth cookbook author and Finnish food authority Bea Ojakangas is a past judge of the Cloquet event. She sees nothing wrong with having two cook-offs.

“Why not have one in every town?” she asked, noting that mojakka is an unknown dish in the country of Finland. “It’s very much a northern Minnesota thing.”

She also said “mojakka” — which can be both fish or meat-based — is not a Finnish word. Mojakka is a soup or stew popular in Finnish-American and Finnish-Canadian households in the Lake Superior region.

“Kalamojakka” is the term for mojakka made with fish. Root vegetables are used in both fish and meat varieties, which can include whitefish, salmon, beef and wild game.

The Cloquet event still benefits Friends of Animals Humane Society as it has every year. The Finland event benefits the American Cancer Society.

Tags: news, finland, cloquet, food, cooking