Top Chef Tour Recap

About 2 weeks ago, my friend Kristin called me, SUPER excited because “TOP CHEF IS COMING!!!” I was confused. They already DID a Top Chef Chicago! She calmed down enough to tell me that there’s this Top Chef Tour, and 2 of the chefs were coming to Chicago on May 30 to do a demo and Q&A session, and did I want to go? I believe my answer was “DUH!”

She pulled it together to get the tickets, and we made the plans to drive down to Green City Market (where the demo was), do some shopping, and then watch the demo. We did exactly that! We got down to the market at about 12:30 and wandered around a bit. Since we had about an hour to kill before the demo, we walked around. Most of the produce was asparagus. Seriously there were about 8 stalls with JUST asparagus. There was a honey vendor though, and I got a cute bear full of raw black locust honey

Please excuse the remote in the background!

We got seated, and then the demo started! We got to see Antonia from Top Chef Season 4 and Radhika from Season 5, and they cooked one of Radhika’s recipes. It was a 10-spice crusted halibut with butter braised corn and lentils with bacon and garlic. Let’s just say I wished I got more than this:

Three bites... SO not enough!

The chefs hung out and answered a bunch of questions after they finished cooking. Both of them were very open and honest about their experiences on the show, and they both seem to honestly LOVE Chicago!

Antonia "cheated" when reading off the 10 spices in the rub

giving cooking hints, like "use GOOD olive oil, and add it RIGHT at the end"

prepping ingredients

Don't remember what was going on here...

After the demo was over and we got our tastes of their cooking, we headed over to the “meet and greet” table, where both chefs signed autographs and chit chatted a bit. I asked them if it was ok if I posted their dish on my food blog, and Antonia said “Cool! You have a food blog? I love that!” My friend Kristin and I took a picture with them, and went on our way.

Fun day!!

We ended up at one of my favorite sushi restaurants, Tank,  for lunch, and the rolls were just so pretty I had to take a picture!

That's an eel/avocado/cream cheese/peanut roll and a spicy tuna roll

After the sushi, we were EXHAUSTED, so we braved the traffic and headed home. All in all, a fantastically fun foodie day! I have another fun foodie day planned for tomorrow, in addition to Lizz’s daughter’s 4th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese!

It’s going to be a chill evening here… I’m out! Don’t forget to enter the foodie charm contest, or buy a charm here!

Technorati Tags: friends, sushi, Top Chef