event recap: 2014 Fabulous Food Show (AKA that time I met Tyler Florence)
Disclosure: In return for offering a giveaway for tickets to the 2014 Fabulous Food Show, I received media passes to attend the show at the IX Center. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Every year when the Fabulous Food Show rolls around, I get giddy. After attending three of the previous eight years of the event put on by the IX Center, my favorite parts of the show are the opportunities to learn more about various techniques in the kitchen.
But when this year’s celebrity chef line up was announced, my heart skipped a beat: my chef crush — Chef Tyler Florence — was coming back to Cleveland to present on the show’s main stage. I saved the date of Sunday, November 16th on my Google Calendar and waited patiently for this year’s event to arrive. Not only would my poor husband have to deal with me freaking out about meeting another man, it was on a Browns Sunday game day. God bless my redhead.
Hans and I started our visit to the show Sunday morning with the VIP Experience to meet Chef Florence. Go big or go home, right? He has a new cookbook out — Inside the Test Kitchen: 120 New Recipes, Perfected — which is filled with new techniques for the kitchen to maximize efficiency and flavor. Less time and energy for a better product? This is my kind of thinking.
Chef walked around to the tables filled with Fabulous Food Show attendees eager to meet him — snapping photos and signing cookbooks along the way. Before I knew it, he walked over to our group — which included Melanie from Melanie Makes and her two daughters — to chat about food, but also everyone’s favorite Disney movie, Frozen.
Chef was super cool — exactly as he comes off in all of the Food Network shows he’s been a part of. He was super gracious to chat with us, as well as snap a few photos, which I am really grateful for. It’s always fun to meet someone that has taught you something from afar, so thanks Chef for your time.
Managing to still be standing post chat, we did our best to enjoy everything the Fabulous Food Show had to offer:
Top left clockwise: Chef Florence and his finished Eggs Benedict, my copy of Edible Cleveland with my media pass, hanging out with Melanie from Melanie Makes, Cincinnati’s favorite ice cream and a visit to see Pope’s Kitchen and Catering stand.
I could spend an entire weekend of the Food Show just sitting in the Main Kitchen Theater. I love hearing these food professionals share their techniques and tales. Chef Michael Symon’s pasta cooking demo had superior tips and a lot of humor — and that Michael Symon laugh! Chef Florence shared information on how to poach 12 eggs at one time (his secret: in a water bath in a hotel pan in the oven) and how to spatchcock your turkey this Thanksgiving holiday (link to how to do this method on the SF Chronicle site). Those two sessions alone were such an inspiration to get back in the kitchen — I wish we could have stayed for more.
LONG STORY SHORT: So I met my chef crush, and didn’t pass out. Overall a successful trip to the Fabulous Food Show, I’d say! Plus it didn’t hurt to go home with some of Pope’s Kitchen’s BBQ Sauce (which is delicious, BTW — pick it up at the Cleveland Flea this weekend). Year nine of the Fabulous Food Show was a blast — let’s see what year ten brings in 2015!
Disclosure: In return for offering a giveaway for tickets to the 2014 Fabulous Food Show, I received media passes to attend the show at the IX Center. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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