Great Big Food Show

This past Sunday, Grace and I went to FoodTV’s Great Big Food Show at the IX Center near the airport. Tickets buy entry to the floor, wine-tasting vouchers (which we didn’t really use and had remainders) and a reserved seat in the “Celebrity Theater” for one of the shows. The celebrities there included Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Mario Batali and the Unwrapped guy.

Most of the floor exhibits were local food vendors — restaurants, purveyors, markets — as well as a few national brands with large booths, such as Starbuck’s and Viking. This was actually more an afternoon of grazing free samples while waiting for our 5PM Alton Brown tickets as anything else, though we’ve realized that Starbuck’s has yummy holiday cookies, and local chain Mustard Seed Market (closest of two locations is in Solon) can give Whole Foods a run for its money. I also want silpat baking mats or something similar, but the food show items were way overpriced.

Interestingly, the convention center’s food court was open, filled with greasy hotdogs and fried cheese products. I don’t think they did much business, except possibly selling beverages (Poland Springs wasn’t there giving out free samples). The bar in the food court did have a crowd at most times, though I think it was because smoking was allowed in that area more than anything else. The convention center is huge — the food show only occupied a fraction of the total space — and a trip outside to smoke may have taken half-an-hour.

Alton Brown came on stage like a rock star being announced at a noisy arena, and did a quick show on foams and how they work in egg nog and ice cream. The stage show was similar to Good Eats with the wacky sense of humor and science demonstrations (fat molecules clobbering protein chains, etc.), though this time using audience volunteers as the molecular props. No autographs, though: the lines were too long.

Here are photos from the show (the Alton Brown stage show is at the end):

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I had about half a dozen earlier photos that didn’t come out too well — Alton Brown and Rachel Ray doing their book signings (I saw an insane fan wearing an autographed T-shirt that self-referentially read “Rachel Ray Signed My T-Shirt”. He may have Rachel Ray’s face tattooed to his stomach for all I know.) — because I has the camera set to ISO200, when I should have bumped it to something much faster. The human eye is an amazing thing, able to compensate for differing light levels without us consciously noticing.

One Response to “Great Big Food Show”

  1. Jane Says:

    I highly recommend the Wild Oats waaaaaaaay out east. I think it’s at 271 and Shaker or thereabouts. Chardon? Chagrin? (I think that’s it) Sad how I have forgotten the street names! But I agree with you about Mustard Seed in Solon. They have a delicious cafe.

    Have you been out to Tommy’s on Coventry yet? You REALLY need to go.