Welcome to the Curly Cook, a food blog dedicated to good food and wine with Portuguese flare!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The day I wish I knew how to make Kraft Dinner...



A few weeks ago, my brother David forwarded me an email about an event with Bob Blumer from FoodTV coming to UWO. Being a fan of his shows I emailed to sign up and received a reply saying that the event was full, but that there was a waiting list. With very little faith, I put my name on the waiting list and miraculously received a reply a few hours later saying that the event had been moved to a bigger room. I was pretty happy about that, but more happy of the fact that there was also a contest to be Bob Blumer's sous-chef for the event...so i put my name in the contest and sent every possible good vibe I could muster along with it...a few more weeks past, and I never heard from the organizers...until last Thursday when I got an email from the organizers saying i had won the contest!!! I had problems controlling myself and NOT doing a happy dance in my office...although i think i may have squealed...I'll have to double check with my office neighbours on that one, lol
So today was the big day...i was pretty psyched for the whole day and looking forward to meeting him...which i did.He was pretty down to earth and seemed, well, normal...
Anyways, he gave a talk about how he got from UWO (which is where he graduated from...I didn't know that until I got the original email) to Food TV (it was a non-direct route, but a good story...you can find out more about Bob here) He also talked about what he thought the equation for success was...some smarts + creativity + tenacity + hubris + adaptability + timing + luck...I think thats all of them...but you get the idea. So after he answered some questions from the audience, he introduced me and told me that I wasn't going to be his sous-chef but that i was going to be his competitor! It's all good I thought, i'm comfortable in the kitchen and in front of crowds...this will be fun....well that was until he pulled out a box of Kraft Dinner! He was trying to prove the point that making some garlic & chili powder infused sauce with pasta was quicker than Kraft dinner and cost about the same...the one problem was that I have never made Kraft Dinner!!! He was pretty surprised and I think most of the ppl in the audience were too, but it's the truth, I've tried the stuff twice in my life because other ppl had made it, and hated it both times....anyways, it was all good. We got one of the 300 other ppl who knew what they were doing to give me a crash course in Kraft dinner, and it ended up being that Bob's dish was faster and much tastier!
So the lesson of the day, cooking from scratch is preferred, but cooking out of a box can also come in handy...stay tuned for my next post....How to Make Kraft Dinner :p

6 comments:

Paul said...

Hi Sandra : )

You have a new fan in the U.S. I was looking for a recipe for Portuguese rice and I came upon your video on youtube. Great job with the videos! I think you're very talented and have a great personality for tv. I wish you the best.

Paul

Deborah Dowd said...

That is so cool- I love the Surreal Gourmet! I have made his green eggs and ham and the salmon cooked in the dishwasher- both fun and a big hit!

Anonymous said...

WoW! Congrats, how exciting for you!

Lo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ShellyH said...

Congrats on winning that contest! You have a great blog with some very unique recipes! I found you by visiting the foodie blog roll today.

Cecília said...

Great blog Sandra!!!
Try to discover who is "Cordonbleu"!!

You really need to post more!!! You look fabulous cooking!

Um beijinho Português!