Cat Cora Macy's cooking demo recap

Chef Cora shows the crowd what hot olive oil should look like.

During last Saturday's freshly sunny afternoon the third floor of the Mall of Millenia Macy's was all a flutter with excitement buzzing from the Housewares section. The Iron Chef Cat Cora was about to arrive and perform a cooking demo executing a few dishes from her new Disney restaurant, Kouzzina by Cat Cora. The crowd was so thrilled, their fidgeting with seats, cameras, and cell phones signaled that they could hardly stand the anticipation to share an afternoon with their favorite celebrity chef. Cat Cora is  best known for being the only female Iron Chef on the popular competition cook-off Food Network TV series, Iron Chef America. Cutting her chef teeth first culinary school, Cat followed her American education by studying under two master chefs in France and then returned to the states to cook her cuisine her way. Cat Cora earned the chops to play with the big boys and girls of the restaurant industry and she does so today without seemingly batting a fabulous eye lash.  Cora is beyond masterful at the art of multi-tasking. She and her partner parent four sons while taping Iron Chef episodes, opening restaurants, writing cookbooks, being a UNICEF spokesperson, creating the organization and working as the President of Chefs for Humanity, working as Bon Appetit's Executive Chef, and arriving all grins at endless public appearances like the Macy's Culinary Council in-store demos. Naturally as a chef member of Macy's Culinary Council, Cat's energy as she arrived on the stage next to the Cuisinarts had the ready, aim, fire! effect. 

First course on the tasting menu, non-alcoholic Ouzzotinis.

Chef Cora wasted no time zooming into the preparatory steps of her Ouzzotini-non-alcoholic of course since the first three rows of seats were attended by The Young Chef's Academy student body. The cocktail at the restaurant is a mixture of citrus juices and a touch of pomegranate juice shaken with ice along with Ouzzo and vodka and poured into a sugar rimmed slim martini glass. At the event the kid-friendly version stuck to the juices, ice, and sugar and was more than well-received by the thirsty tasting crowd.

Second tasting plate, Brussels sprouts.

The next dish on the cooking demo agenda was an elegantly simple Brussels sprouts dish. The very brave Chef Cora prepared the tiny cabbages cooked with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, capers, and lemon juice until softened and then served hot with shredded Romano cheese to children from ages six and up with no fear.  Truthfully some young palettes did not care for the Brussels sprouts, but at least they had an excellent first experience with the hearty, and no longer strange, vegetable. Sometimes in food and life exposure is everything.

Third tasting plate, itty-bitty lamb burgers.

Act three, the grand finale, featured the tiniest lamb burger I and many others have ever seen and definitely have ever eaten. The size for the demo tasting will no doubt not be the serving size at Kouzzina, although it might be worth it to see the shocked faces of eager and hungry diners. Chef Cora explained throughout the demo that the food style and approach at Kouzzina are simple Mediterranean foods of her family re-envisioned with a healthful and flavorful, modern twist like her mom's cinnamon chicken and the lamb burger with a yogurt sauce similar to tzatziki, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. A lingering thought after eating an entire burger like this tasting in one foul swoop was, "Who in the world bakes these tiny buns?"

While making the burgers Cat suggested, "Someone should take a picture of this."

As Cora prepared a regular size patty with enhancements like green onion and feta cheese, her assistant handed her the plate of the burger fix-ins which threw the champ chef for a loop. The tasting portion of the lamb burgers were comically small, so small Chef Cora struggled to keep a straight face as she dressed the itty-bitty, literally one bite-size burger. Cat kept her cool and went with it making quips and posing for a picture to scale smiling widely. The whole room enjoyed the unexpected comic relief before Cora finished with a Q&A session on-stage prior to signing books and taking photos with her ever expanding her foodie fan legion. 

Iron Chef Cat Cora smiles with students and instructors of The Young Chefs Academy.

Throughout the entire event Chef Cat Cora expressed the importance of healthy eating, family, and not giving up on big culinary dreams. With each success Cat Cora's model of behavior will continue to be admired and copied by fans, home cooks, and next generation chefs both young and old. That is the most wonderful quality about food, it provides connections and memories that last a life time. Just take a look at these Young Chefs and see if their young lives will be forever changed by one sunny afternoon with an Iron Chef.