COOKING CHALLENGES AT PARTIES

Iron Chef? Chopped? Hells Kitchen? Nope, how about cooking challenges that are done in peoples homes? This one dude I talked to several weeks ago says he is building his version of kitchen stadium on his property up in Kula, Maui. This is what he said, "I'm building an outdoor kitchen where friends can come and do cooking demonstrations, and cooking challenges. I'll have state of the art kitchen appliances,  everything, top notch." I conversed even further, because he'd seen me on Akaku TV doing my cooking show, he said that he'd keep me in mind because he wanted to set up cameras in this kitchen arena he was constructing. Well seems to me he knows his shit, because he was telling me where the video cameras was going to be placed, and where the big screen was going to be placed so that people could see what the cooks were doing. He even wants the seats to be like bleachers so that the performers could be seen at every angle, with every action being performed, everyone would have a bird's eye view. Wow! I wish I had that kind of cash to just get a house, forget building a freeking kitchen stadium.

Another associate manages a local sports bar, she told me that cooks from rival restaurants get invited to her home, and they have a major throw down, who can cook the best dishes, well, that kind of talk can get dangerous I thought, a bunch of sweaty cooks that work for a living, letting their anger out in creative culinary jousting. I wonder if there would be fist fights if the judges decided Jorge's stew is better than Angelina's stew, and so forth and so on.

But foodies are foodies,  you'll get invited to food challenges, wine tastings, cheese eating, won ton making, cake baking, oyster shooter contests, martini mixing, you see foodies are like car enthusiasts, they love food, and it's a hobbie for most of them. My friend Shirley Fong Torres in San Francisco is not only an accomplished chef in Chinese cuisine, but she takes people on tours around San Francisco, on food! Food! Man she's got a great gig man. Check out http://www.wokwiz.com/ where she can be seen. Or if you're in the Bay area look her up. She's on facebook, and all of her posts are pics of food. What a life.

Foodies are out here folks, and it'll never end, never. As long as we have cheap oil, gasoline, cars, shipping, farming, food purveyors, money, hey... you'll get some foodie inviting you to their home for some food event. I was even invited to a freeking coffee making contest at someone's home, I should have gone and brought my video cam, but I opted out of it. Maybe if there were chicks in hot outfits doing the event I'd show up. But it sounded rather boring, but maybe next time someone invites me to some foodie event that's home based, I think I will show up, because quite frankly, the best entertainment is done by regular folks, they're funnier, and they're more real than watered down television any day. So here in conclusion, I'd say go out and visit a foodie friend when invited to some food thing, just go and have fun, you may even learn something, and for sure there might be some free grub, free drink, and if you are searching, maybe someone for yourself, if you're single that is, for God's sake don't hook up with someone married... that's a sin, or well, that ain't cool. An angry spouse may kill you. No you don't want that do you? A foodie event is about food, so keep it about food, you wanna hook up with someone go to the nearest bar will you?