I survived my 1st Food & Wine Fest!

So, this weekend I had my first Food & Wine Festival experience. About 2 months or so ago Foxwoods asked if I'd join in and of course I said yesssss! After saying yes, omg, the emails, the recipe submittals, the conference calls, press photo emails and the like went down at a fast pace. At the time, I was still on the road taping How'd That Get On My Plate?, I had just been offered to join in on Dear Food Network, and I was in the process of finding a new place so I could get a better kitchen. I didn't even know if I was going to get picked up for more episodes, but I knew I needed to first invest in myself, before I expected anyone else to. So plenty was going on when I got the request to participate in my first Food & Wine festival. I have only my good friend Natina, to thank for helping me through all the scheduling mess. I talked about her on one of the Cooking for Real episodes, if ya caught that one. One night we were chatting on the phone, I was in some city after a long day on the farm taping and got back to the hotel room with a ton of emails and plenty of requests for time. I think she heard the panic in my voice and offered to help get my schedule in order. What a life-saver. No way I could've even gotten the paperwork done for the festival and everything else that hosting a cooking demo involved. Alright, so kudos to my girrrrrrl.

Me and my dude got to Foxwoods tired and exhausted, but still made it out to a party that night for the event. It was open bar with free hors d'oeuvres . . . uh, sign me up! We left early and then the next day found out it got crazy after we left! Dunno if I was happy or mad about that lol. Saturday morning we woke up to a neat lil fog blanket ... check it out ...

Enough of the scenery, I had to head to the kitchens there to chat with the head chef Vincent and go over the mise en place for my demo. Uhhhh, you know I'm not one for fancy food words, but just in case you don't know . . .

Mise en place: (MEEZ in PLAHZ) "Put in place." The preparation and assembly of ingredients, pans, utensils, and plates or serving pieces needed for a particular dish or service period.

Alright, so the mise en place was good to go, then I sat and got nervous about my first ever cooking demo! Oh, yeah . . . didn't tell ya? Neva done it before and here I am at a Food & Wine fest about to pop my grape ;-), not cherry. Only real hitch was the induction cook top took forever to heat up my oil, so I had to fill time like crazy waiting to fry up some oysters. Gas cookin' is where it's at!! It was funny internally, but I kept saying to myself, don't laugh . . . just fill with a story. Which I did . . . foreverrrrrrrrr. Only one oyster came outta that oil done lol. I give myself a 5 outta 10 on that demo :-(. Here I am filling time ...


That's ok though, cuz the next day I'd have another chance. So, I made sure the oil was preheated and then got to work ... turned out way better and I had more fun. Not a 10, but I can see improvement before next year's Food and Wine festival in South Beach. Werrrrd ... they asked me to participate, so I'm getting all my kinks out for that. Can't wait to go in an official capacity. Just earlier this year I thought, how am I gonna get there? I really wanna go ... then, I got a call from the head organizer. Pretty neat. Wanna know something else pretty neat? As we were leaving that party Friday night at the casino, we were walking and out of nowhere I see 3 familiar faces. Turns out my former 3 bosses from my gig right before I started taping Cooking for Real, were at the casino just to chill. Here I am, leaving a party early because I'm tired from a long week of taping and I'm all woe is me-like. You know? Good problems, but I was still internally griping about the long week and the "work" that weekend. Really wack when many people are out pounding the pavement looking for a job. No sooner I think the thought and SMACK! Right in my face were the people I used to work for when all this was a dream. I quickly took the hint from the coincidence and decided being tired was okay. What a chance run-in.

Another neat run-in was with Ingrid Hoffman! She is such a cutie pie! And teeny too! She was heading in to her cooking demo, when I was outside signing cards and stuff and she came by to say hi. It is such a good family and friendly feeling with everyone. Anne Burrell and I were watching Guy do his demo and he brought us up to say hi to the crowd, just a total all inclusive feeling. Here's me and Miss Simply Delicioso ...


Can't forget the Grand Tasting. This is like an eat/drink fest. You walk through and the various vendors have a table set up and you get free samples until your heart desires. Check the scene...


I must've sipped about 20 wines, and just scratched the surface there. Not to mention the food on display as well. I think my fave was a fizzy wine and this lil bite ...


Pretty neat weekend. Ok, not to complain :-) ... but I'm tired. Hope you had a great Monday! Only 2 more days left to shoot the new Cooking for Real episodes, stick around for some flicks n stuff.