Food Network fanatics and those who wish for spectator seats in top restaurants? kitchens will rejoice at the Baltimore?s Chefs and Wine Experience lineup. The event packs into six hours national and local top chefs? cooking demonstrations, food samples from select area restaurants and caterers, and wine, coffee and spirits samplings.
One of the most high-profile personalities stepping behind the stove will be cookbook author and “Top Chef” judge Ted Allen, the most epicurious member of Bravo?s defunct makeover show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Allen will cook up pan-roasted salmon with sweet tomato vinaigrette, rosemary chicken with summer tomatoes and olives, and last but not least, cauliflower puree.
We know what you?re planning for the cooking demo. What?s on the menu for the wine seminar?
“Seminar” is almost too serious of a word for it because it?s really playful and interactive. I love doing it. I don?t stand in front of everyone and dictate what to drink with what wine. [Rather,] each person has four wines ? two whites and two reds. And the audience sits down with a little plate of unseasoned cooked chicken, a slice of lemon, a green olive, sun-dried tomato, a piece of cheddar cheese and a piece of chocolate.
Each person eats a piece of chicken and then sips their sauvignon blanc and says what they taste. Then they squeeze lemon on the chicken and sip.
You see the lightbulbs going off. They taste the sauvignon blanc has citrus notes, is a tart wine and the right amount of acid and stands up to the lemony chicken.
If we miss you at the chefs event, we can see you on your new Food Network show, “Food Detectives,” premiering July 29. What?s it about?
I?m the host and I have these henchmen food techs who use science to test popular food myths like “Is there truth to the five second rule?” “Does ginger actually cure motion sickness?” And we explore food stories like “Where did the Caesar salad come from?”
There?s a local connection to the show?
We shot the pilot in Little Italy and worked with [Executive] Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Corks. He?s a very sophisticated chef, and all we needed was a chef to make really, really hot chicken wings. But he was really cool. He did a fantastic job, and was great for TV.
