this weekend patrick and i ventured up to the suburban land of...connecticut! it is a state we usually drive through to get to new england (which is just about never since we either fly places or never visit new england...sad fact but true). anyway, patrick was excited since he has never stayed in that state, and i had only gone to the small beach town of milford to babysit this past summer. so what brought us to the
constitution state? why, the
buick discovery tour, of course!
several weeks ago, patrick recieved an email from
food and wine magazine inviting us to an exciting event where you can test drive buicks, sample delicious food from some top chefs, and taste test wine. so, being the spontaneous fellow that he is, patrick made a reservation to attend this event. i was kind of into it, but kind of not at the same time. i had this attitude of something like this, "ok...that sounds cool. let's see if this will happen. connecticut? i guess we can go." yes, i know my attitude stunk pretty badly. if you think that is an ambivalent statement above, read it out loud with a whiny tone.
so come buick discovery day, which was yesterday november 12, and my whine turned in complete cranky, stinky, nasty frustration! i had a bad morning as i tried to find something to wear to the event, and yet could find nothing due to the fact that i have not done laundry in, i don't know, several weeks? don't judge. my crankenstein persona calmed down that afternoon after visiting my
small mom big city friend, sarah and her family. we enjoyed good conversation and our favorite sicilian pizza in the whole city from l&b spumoni gardens. upon leaving their house, i felt good inside, and i was ready for our night, for the most part. until! we ran into tons of traffic on our way up to CT! i slowly sank deeper and deeper into a black hole of snippy remarks, rude comments, and even let my husband's jokes spear my heart to hurt my feelings when in most situations i would have laughed right along with him.
thus we arrive to the
sheraton stamford hotel. luckily, my sister called me as we were pulling into a spot in the hotel parking garage, and she told me a funny story that left me feeling lighter and able to handle this event. oh, and by the way, at this point we are about an hour late from when we were supposed to arrive. we missed out on the test drive for buick, but i was actually ok with that. i was not in the mood to be sold a very expensive although beautiful product.
after checking in, patrick and i went to our room to quickly change into something more suitable and hurried back down to the lobby to register. before we knew it, we joined up with group b and watched our first cooking demonstration with food and wine's best new chef, gavin kaysen who is the head chef at
cafe boulud. he demonstrated how to make a current menu item called maine peekytoe crab with orange and pepper gelee, shaved fennel, and tangerine-vanilla vinaigrette. it was light, interesting in a good way, and delicious. i mean, i wouldn't expect anything less from a top chef.
this is what the plate looked like.
i just had to meet chef kaysen afterwards and tell him how much we admired his dish. i also told him how chef boulud's madeleines have changed my life. next time there is a special event, i definitely want to go to cafe boulud to eat more of his food.
me and chef gavin kaysen
our next stop was to visit pastry chef ben roche from chicago's moto. he showed us how to make ice cream using liquid nitrogen. i felt like i was watching mr. wizard create a science experiment right in front of me! it was super cool, and also super cold...you do not want to spill that stuff all over you when cooking. chef roche also made us s'mores bombs, which ended up being like a liquid s'more truffle. it was awesomely creative and yummy! he uses gastronomy as one of his main techniques so that he always comes up with new ways to prepare and create his dishes.
chef roche making maple bacon and sage ice cream with liquid nitrogen. gotta say, i loved it!
here is the finished product of the ice cream and the s'mores bomb.
stop number 3 on our discovery tour took us to some wine tasting with michael green, wine extaordinaire! first he had us sample a rodney strong charlotte's home sauvignon blanc that had pear and melon notes and was also dry. patrick and i loved it! but some people did not as they preferred fruity wines. michael told those who turned up their noses to have no fear, eat a slice of lemon that was given to us on our plates, and then try the wine again. amazingly enough, the wine tasted fruity as the acid drew out the sweet notes within the wine. our next challenge was to sample a lovely yet bitter red wine from m.chapoutier cote-du-rhone belleruche rouge. it was a blend of grenache and syrah, and michael told us to pay attention to how the wine made our lips pucker. upon his instruction, we then ate a piece of salty pecorino romano cheese which transformed the wine to have a smooth finish. it was like magic in my mouth! i have to say i learned a lot.
michael green teaching us the 6 s's of wine tasting: see, swirl, sniff, sip, swish, and savor (or spit if you drink a lot in one tasting)
the final and main event of the evening was a cooking session with michael psilakis, a greek american chef from long island. he showed us how to make a most delicious meatball with a greek twist to it! he also shared stories of how food shaped his life from the time he was a child until now, as a top chef. psilakis's stories were endearing and as i ate my meatball, i could taste all the love and tradition he described to us on stage. it was a wonderful way to end the evening. i also just had to meet him, and i let him know that we would be visiting his upper west side restaurant,
kefi, very shortly. we also told him that we had just visited maria loi's restaurant recently, and we shared our sentiments of her food (he was just at loi this past week!) and her welcoming hospitality. patrick took a pic, and we shook hands with the chef and were given a signed copy of his new cookbook for coming to this event. i want to let you know that everyone got a copy, which was a nice surprise for us all.
me with chef michael psilakis
chef psilakis's meatball...i ate it up so quickly that i forgot to take a picture of it. anyway, it was amazing with it's secret ingredient being wonder bread!
the end of the evening was upon me, and i have to say that i am glad i got over myself and went to the discovery tour. i actually had a lot of fun, and the chefs that presented renewed my love of food and cooking something with soul behind it. if you would like the recipes for the peekytoe crab dish and the s'mores bomb, stay tuned for my next post and i will have them up for you within a few days.
this is beth signing off.
mission: accomplished.
