A play-by-play of the 11th annual Healthy Chef Competition
8 Comments
Karen Hamilton
March 17, 2010
My husband and I are heading over to the Hyatt Regency tonight on the invite of the organizers of the Healthy Chef Competition. In fact, they were kind enough to give us a full table to fill with colleagues in the food writing community, so we invited some of the folks behind Foodists, Granville Magazine, Vancouver Foodster, Victoria’s Food Secrets, and Follow Me Foodie along for the ride.
If my iPhone cooperates with me, this post will be running commentary as we take in the event and dine our way through the competitors’ submissions. Come see us on Twitter using the hashtag #hcc2010 if you crave more immediacy!
7:15pm. …And we’re here! A little bit of mingling with our cohort followed by a few snaps of the showcase of competitor dishes at the back of the ballroom, all of which having undergone the scrutiny of the judges’ panel.
7:30pm. Our table is seated and being directed to open the envelopes on our place settings. They tell us which of the competitors we’ll each experience tonight. Me? I’ve get to try the entree from the Hyatt Regency and the dessert by the Sheraton Wall Centre. I’m a little envious of Victoria, who will be trying VCC’s lobster main. But I’m sure all will be delectable.
7:45pm. Ooh, sneaky! Our emcee told us to pass the envelopes in front of us 2 to our left, 3 to our right! We jumped the gun…now I’ve got Kettle of Fish for my main and Carvers Steakhouse for dessert.
8:20pm. Many of the mains were given two thumbs up, so when the emcee announced that seconds were available at most stations, a stampede ensued. Paralyzed by indecision, I wound up getting a dish that didn’t have much of a line – pork loin and quail eggs as a fine dining equivalent of bacon and eggs.
8:40pm. Dessert round commences with guests simply deciding to go up to their designated chef stations. Some, knowing there will likely be seconds, stole their seconds early…our table certainly containing more than a handful of those culprits.
9pm. Best desserts according to our table: strawberry shortcake by the Hyatt, chocolate mousse from Four Willows, and a duo of cakes (one was mango) whose origin currently eludes me.
10:30pm. Home early after a go-go-go evening of eating, mind whirling with ideas on how we’ll use the box of produce that we got to take home.
Because we had to rush home to our daughter, we missed hearing the winners announced for best entree, best dessert, and so forth, so once I receive the intel, I’ll update this post and share with you.
In the meantime, I’ve managed to complete a speedy upload of the pictures I took with my trusty SLR, which for brevity’s sake was not my lens of choice when I was blogging live. I’ve since replaced some of the shaky iPhone snaps with ones that I hope are more drool-worthy, but some of these will have to stay put until the rest of my table (namely Ed) lets me share more high-resolution images with you.
I’ll do one more update of this piece tomorrow within the week to air my overall thoughts of this event. If you have questions or comments – especially those of you that were at my table tonight – please leave a comment here and I’ll try to fill in the gaps for you. Good night for now.
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Events, Food
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Wow Karen! What a treat! Membership has its privileges:)
Thanks so much for coming out to the event. The chefs were loving the fact that there was live blogging tonight! I can’t wait to show them your posts. I can’t believe you made it out tonight with such a young foodie at home! Cheers.
Hi Karen – great seeing you – thanks so much for the coverage, great photos and write up. Always fabulous.
Karen – it was a great night, wasn’t it. And as usual, your photos are absolutely amazing. Wonderful composition, great depth of field variety, and superb close-up detail. How DO you do it!!
Thanks again, Karen, for the invite. Great shots, too. Was repeating that warm strawberry shortcake in my dreams, I think.
Thank you for coming out last night to support such a great cause. The pictures are great and the live blog is wonderful
Oh man, the food was all as delicious as it looks in your fab photos. Thanks so much for letting us tag along!
[...] year’s Healthy Chef Competition was last week and Karen from Tiny Bites, who was hosting the media table, was kind enough to invite me along. I was a tad nervous since [...]