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
