F&W Deminar - Chef TJ Sudwisa
After hearing so much about Chef TJ on the boards, I knew that I needed to take advantage of his Food and Wine appearance. Before he even came out to cook I knew he would be good. His line, while not quite as long as the celebrity chefs, was already fairly long when I arrived about 30 minutes early. In fact, Deb Wills from Allears.net was there waiting to see Chef TJ too. She was busy talking with folks in front of her so I didn't get a chance to say hello at that moment.
The host was that John guy again and he brought out Michael Flannery the world's most self important vodka guy. Okay, so that's probably not his official title, but it's what I dubbed him after my experiences. He made us a vodka sour drink using Belvedere Pink Vodka.
The drink was good, I'll give him that.
Before Chef TJ came out his staff of sous chefs came out and gave everyone a gift.
It was a little bottle of spices on a necklace. I love free stuff and the spices smelled great, kind of like a house mixture of spices - garlic, salt, pepper, onion powder, etc. I have yet to use it but i think it would go really well with a steak.
Chef TJ came out after that with lots of fanfare, he walked through the crowd with a pan tossing around something that smelled great, never figured out what it was though - it wasn't anything he used in his recipes.
The cooking started and we got two items - first was Mango Lime Tostones. They were basically plantains topped with a mango salsa.
The tostone was good but would have been much better had it been served warm.
The next item was a mango tart. The tart was tiny, but very tasty.
Chef TJ took some questions throughout and even asked the audience while cooking if anybody was allergic to nuts. He must get that a lot
After the deminar was over I hung back for a few minutes to speak with Deb from All Ears. She was really nice and gave me some All Ears trading cards, we even talked a little bit about Chef TJ's popularity and wondered if he had any idea the internet fame he has gained.
This deminar was well worth my time and money, a great experience for sure.