Closing Lilly Street for a lasagna competition

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This post is about lasagna but I don’t have an appropriate photo so you’re getting a photo of a beesting, another favourite of mine. Lilly Street in South Fremantle, Western Australia, had its day in the sun recently. Since 1998, an annual lasagne-making competition shuts down the entire street. The competition began when two neighbours recruited a third neighbour to judge who made the best lasagne. Tongue in cheek, Jenny Baker said they were both good but she made a better one. That led to the organising of a lasagne competition and later that year, 1998, nine neighbours competed for ‘best lasagne’. Apart from 2024, when Jenny’s husband died, the event has been running ever since. Her husband was ‘ringmaster’ and lived for ‘lasagne day’. The street is lined with gazebos, trestle tables and camp chairs while four judges blind-taste 60 slices. The lasagnes are judged on taste, look and structure. In 2025, Melina Glagaich won the trophy. It was her 25th year of competing and she had given up hope of ever winning. What a great thing for that street.