Congratulations to the Hippodrome for the major improvements on their Foodie Experience this year, they definitely learned from the year before when there were too many people, too little space, hard to reach food and no free beverages. Congratulations – it was a wonderful evening. They got rid of the band – halleluiah and put in a cooking demonstration stage where the chef from Vino Rosino and Chef Patrick Crooks of Roy’s shared cooking tips. The food stations were well spread out but it looks like I missed Aldo’s – never saw them. Plenty of food, open bar and room to roam.
Let me kick off and say that Alton Brown was and is quite entertaining, equal to any standup comic worthy of my dollars. His wit, his humor and quick thinking made the hour and a half fly by. At no point was I fidgeting in my seat and the husband definitely didn’t fall asleep.
Brown focused on his mini power point presentation of the 10 most important things about food. It was a guideline that allowed him to interact and ENGAGE the audience. A special email address for the evening was given out as emails came to Alton on stage and many of the audience sent in questions. At one point a women talked about her mother who only eats chicken fingers. Alton told her to send him via email her email address and he would send her a note to stop with the “chicken fingers.”
When asked about Bobby Flay, Alton said “Bobby is the nicest guy on the Food Network”, when ask about Giada he said, “She was the nicest person at the Food Network…the audience called him on that. He did slam our local boy, Duff Goldman. Someone sent an e-mail asking if Duff Goldman was in the audience and Brown said, “Oh, the Ace of Inedible Cakes.” Some laughed - some didn’t.
Alton Brown did a stellar job performing and getting the audience laughing while still delivering his message for local food, teach your kids to cook, don’ t use processed food and why he will buy IQF frozen foods over foods spending 7 days coming cross country on a truck or via rail.
Who should be next?
What will they do next year? What food worthy celebrity has enough juice to fill the theatre? Would you go see Anthony Bourdain again? Who should it be? Emeril, I’ve seen his live show in Atlantic City and he can be quite entertaining. Let's make our suggestions heard to the Hippodrome.
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