Action Kitchen - Fun Cooking School Event Space

When Nick was invited to a work event that merely mentioned Throwdown with Bobby Flay, I was there immediately, but really had NO idea was to expect.  While we did not go to the actual filming, we got to do almost the next best thing: go to where they filmed it, have a cooking class, and then watch the most recent episode where Flay takes on the sisters from nebo in a vegetable lasagna battle.

Until that night, I never knew that the Seaport Hotel had a fun space called Action Kitchen.  The place is set up for anything from filming shows to hosting cooking classes for companies to participate in team building activities.  In fact, Pre-Game Meal with Shannon Allen is also filmed in the Action Kitchen!

Walking in, the space was really warm and welcoming and had a great set up.  Plenty of space to mingle and to cook with top-of-the-line products. 

Goodie BagsThe first part of the evening was cocktails and antipasto.  They were serving nice red and white wines, as well as a Sangria martini.  Needless to say I went straight for the martini, which Nick so nicely held for a photo op!  This had a lot of great flavors and while I wanted more, I wanted to make sure I enjoyed the rest of the evening!

Sangria Martini
The passed redThe antipasto consisted of a couple of really nice spreads of cheeses, breads and crackers, as well as roasted veggies and sliced salami, etc.  Really, that alone could have been the full meal.  While our kitchen efforts were cooking away in the oven, they passed around some fresh shrimp cocktail, arancini, and steak with caramelized onions and feta on a crouton.  This last appetizer was my favorite, but all were delicious.

Passed appetizersThe Action Kitchen is set up with three large work stations.  One with a gas cook top, the other with an induction cook top.  When we arrived, they had everything all set up and we just had to do the middle and end portions.  There were a couple of different options to take part in, but Nick and I helped with a seafood lasagna that had scallops, salmon and cod. 

I was in charge of slicing the scallops.  I will say I have never used a knife as sharp as these.  It was amazing how nice it was to cut with that knife.  It really put all of my knifes, including Nick's nice ones, to shame!

My handy work - sliced scallopsIn the meantime, other people were working on the other parts of the dish, including slicing the salmon...


and making the bechamel sauce. 

Nick's handy workFinally when the bechamel sauce was complete the seafood and other spices and herbs were added, including ground mustard and tarragon.

Ready for the pasta!The next step was to assemble the lasagna...


What made this much easier was the Kitchen had sheets of pasta that fit the actual lasagna dish!  So there was not dealing with mixing and matching your lasagna pieces.  As you can see, there was some grated cheese added to the mix as well.

Almost ready for the ovenThroughout the meal, the chefs from the Action Kitchen were there offering helpful hints and making sure everyone was having fun.  In addition, they were running around like crazy making sure that everything was being done properly and putting on some of the final touches.  This was partly because the servers were so attentive with the passed food and drinks that we were easily distracted!

While we were hard at work, other groups were busy with a Caesar salad and the other lasagna, which was a meatball and fresh mozzarella lasagna that actually had hard boiled eggs in it!  Once everything was cooked we were served buffet style and sat in the nice seating area that was set up to watch the Throwdown episode.

Final Product!The dishes were really tasty and not your typical lasagnas.  It was fun to taste the actual product!  Not that we were actually hungry after all the food and drink, but they had a beautiful spread of Italian desserts for everyone.  While they looked delicious, I really was just too full!

Dessert spreadWe all got Bobby Flay's Throwdown cookbook and an apron to take home with us.  The cookbook has a lot of great recipes, which I am looking forward to trying and will be sure to share :)

Overall this space would be my go to for a lot of different events.  If you have to do some sort of team building for work, this is a great option that is fun and bit outside the box.  Also, this would work for any sort of bridal or baby shower as well.  Really, there are so many different ways you could use this space.  The staff was really accommodating and helpful, making sure we were all having a nice time.  Action Kitchen is really worth checking out - I had a really great night!