http://atastybit.blogspot.com/2012/11/amazon-flavors-culinary-weekend-to.html
http://atastybit.blogspot.com/2012/11/amazon-flavors-culinary-weekend-to_22.html
Last year I had so many information that I wanted to share with my readers, that I could not do it in one single blog. I had to divide into two sections, so that I could give my readers a thorough walk-through of my experience. This year....it was kinda different!
The first remarkable thing about this year is the media exposure of this event. It could be because I'm so isolated from media outlets, but I hardly notice anything that had to do with Amazon Flavors. Just to give you a head's up, my only media outlet is Facebook or e-mail. And I haven't noticed any postings or whatsoever on Facebook: the media when it comes to reaching everyone on a budget.
It is that I got an invitation from my friend, Jill-Joy Landburg, again that I knew that it was held in the weekend 1-3 November. But I thought, it has to be because I was so busy with work that I might have missed the media coverage. I remember that last year they had a breakdown of all the chefs, who were gonna participate in the Chef's competition. I'm not sure if they did that this year.
But no sweat, I was psyched to participate in the program of the day:
I probably missed the first one about the food trends, since I got there when Ms. Liz started talking about meat. It was really educational for me and these are some of the tips:
- never rinse American beef (actually all kinds of beef, but since she was from America). Just dab
with a napkin or so to dab the juices, but never rinse it with lemon/vinegar water. Rinsing makes the
meat lose its natural juices.
- never press the meat or poke the meat after searing it. Searing the meat creates a grilled film
over the meat, which keeps the natural juices inside. If you're gonna poke or press the meat after it,
it will cause the meat to lose its natural juices.
- the more marble, the more done you can cook the beef that's still tender
- 14-18 days aged meat is more tender than fresh meat.
- when it comes to pork, the whiter the meat, the tougher the meat.
- when cutting beef, cut across the grain and not with the grain.
And the best thing about the workshop is the tasting of the different pieces of meat: the difference between choice and select meat, along and across the grain, pork well done vs. pork done the right way. It was a real eye-opener how a simple thing as cutting it differently can affect the texture of your meat.
Chef Gerrit Greveling was accompanied by the MC Ramon Beuk. The MC is the best thing the organization did this year!! He knew a lot about food and has the talent to keep the audience amused. Chef Gerrit is a Michelin Star Master Chef. For this event, he specially prepared an earthy dish with potatoes, cooking cream and truffles. I never had truffles, but I pretty much like its earthiness. And I don't expect anything less from a Michelin Star chef.
Thereafter, we got to taste some pastries from Chef Monti. The whole intention of his workshop is to promote PreGel, an instant product to make pastries within minutes. For more information, please check this site: http://www.pregelamerica.com
I don't know if it has to do with the product or the constant flow of pastries one after another, I got a bit overwhelmed with the taste of PreGel. Call me old fashion, but I like the pastries made from scratch. The pastries made with this product look really gorgeous, but for me it tasted a bit too sweet and I don't know if it's in my head, but it kinda tasted instant/artificial.
Starting at the pastry workshop, visitors are starting to become very chatty. Constantly the visitors needed to be shushed. This was really irritating. It is not only a nuisance for the rest of the visitors, but most of all, very disrespectful to the person giving the workshop.
For instance, during the workshop of Master Sommelier Noel. He seems like a very kind person with a soft voice. At some point, it seemed like he gave up trying to overpower the chattering of all the people, who got their glasses filled with wine. For a wine tasting, the pourers were very heavy-handed. And I gotta say, we got about 10 different kind of wines and unfortunately I was not amused with the line up of the wines. The two wines that did it for me were the Trapiche Merlot and Trapiche Syrah.
I gotta say, this year they really invited some impressive people over for the event:
- Chef Gerrit Greveling - A Michelin Star Master Chef
- Chef Monti- Pastry chef with 30 year's experience in Ritz Carlton
- Noel Van Wittenbergh- just recently awarded with the title 'Best Sommelier of the Netherlands'
- MC Ramon Beuk, who is known for his TV shows like 'back to my roti'
Overall, I have to say that this year's event did not meet my expectations. However the price of a day pass went from $100,- (including lunch) to SRD75,- ( about 1/3 of the price), the whole set up was a bit chaotic. Visitors don't need to sign up for any workshops/ seminars anymore, but just walk in at anytime they'd like. The group of visitors also seemed like a different group compared with last year. Last year, the visitors were eager to gain knowledge and this year's group seemed more interested in having fun and enjoying themselves than listening to anything the invited speakers had to say.
Next to that, the focus of such an event is supposed to be on the chef competition, but with all the seminars happening at the same time the competition lose its attention. I only went on Saturday, so I don't know if Sunday was better with the Iron chef battle.
A positive change in the program was the several food stands, providing lunch options. There was choice between Spice Quest (however I do believe that they were selling Dumpling's #1 menu items), Indian food (roti and snacks) and Creole ( every day a different menu).
But my compliments to the following participants, who highlighted Amazon Flavors :
- Ramon Beuk -> you contributed to a greater experience during the seminars and made many attempts to shush the crowd, while at the same time trying not to show your annoyance.
- Lavazza -> it really gave me a boost of energy whenever I was really in need of it. And I'm sure I was not the only one appreciating this.
- Jethro Wirht- one of our Surinamese culinary pride. I was not present during his battle, but he won the 3rd edition of the International Iron Chef battle of Amazon Flavors. With this victory, he did not only put himself into a higher level, but creates a role model for the Surinamese culinary world.
No comments:
Post a Comment