What a fun Saturday my husband and I had! We had a babysitter and spent the afternoon at the Scottsdale Culinary Festival, eating, eating and eating.
One of the many perks of recipe contesting has been the great people we’ve met along the way.Back in 2006 I met some of the Tillamook Cheese reps at a mac and cheese cook-off I participated in and they are seriously some of the nicest people around.I got an email a few weeks ago from them, asking if I wanted some tickets to the Scottsdale Culinary Festival this weekend.You bet I accepted!
We got hooked up with some sweet tickets to a “special” event called Cooks and Corks, which would have cost us $75 each (Thanks Tillamook!).We handed some guy our tickets, he handed us a plate and let us run wild.There were people everywhere, but we were able to make our way around to each and every booth where restaurants sampled parts of their menu.Talk about yummy!We ate so much today it was ridiculous!Artisan Breads and cheeses, fancy bruscetta, shredded pork tacos, beet salad with goat cheese and tangerine dressing, Tillamook mac and cheese and chocolate bread pudding are just to name a few.We were total gluttens. By the time we left, I was about to bust.
The highlight for me was the celebrity chef cooking demonstrations. On the line up was Robin Miller from Food Network, who I was so excited to get to meet. She was so cute and funny. I love her show, Quick Fix Meals, totally my style of cooking. My husband bought me her new cookbook, she signed it and got a picture with her too. My husband asked me, “Why are you so star struck?” I just laughed, it’s fun to see people that you watch on tv. I get excited. As we were in line for Robin, I told my husband, “Please don’t embarrass me.” So, what does he do, as we were walking away, he hands Robin a slip of paper with my blog address on it and proceeded to tell her to check it out! Oh my gosh I could have killed him. It was totally inappropriate. Thank goodness I walked away quickly. I’m seriously still embarrassed.
I am a faithful Top Chef Fan, I watch it every season so, I was also really excited to see Dale from Season 3 and Sam from Season 2 do a cooking Demo. It was fun to see them cook and meet Dale in person. I didn’t stick around to meet Sam, he went on kind of late, but they both seemed very down to earth and talked a lot about their season on the show. They are both opening up their own restaurants this year too.
It was a great day, aside from my husband’s little antic. Check out some of the pictures I was able to snap during the cooking demo’s. Have a great rest of your weekend everyone! Sorry for those of you who have no idea who these people are!!
Robin Miller in action
Sam from Top Chef Season 2
Dale from Top Chef Season 3