DC Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show

How much you would appreciate the DC Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show depends in part on your eating habits. If you like using mixes or pre-made foods rather than toiling from scratch, you would love the show. It was replete with vendors selling all sorts of pre-packaged products, like pasta and barbeque sauces, pesto, and appetizer dips to name a few. That was the disappointing part of the show for me. I don't like using processed foods, especially those not commonly available in grocery stores, which comprised many of the products at the show. I have a fear that I may find something I really like, but then run out and not be able to find it again.

The highlight of the show was the knife skills class. It wasn't just a demonstration. The class provided cutting boards, knives, and vegetables to cut. I was shocked that the cooking show provided 25 unscreened people with honed chef's knives. It all ended well. No knife-wielding maniacs. I learned that I had been using my knives all wrong and have gotten a lot faster at chopping! Still not as good as my in-laws who frighten me with the speed and sharpness of their knives. The lowlight of the show was Paula Deen. For an extra fee, attendees could go to a demonstration by a celebrity chef. The seating was horrible and only a select few had a good up-close view of Paula. Also, her demonstration was like a big advertisement for Smithfield pork products, chefs that she promotes on the Food Network, and her products, like her new seafood dip. She barely did any cooking and didn't use hardly any butter, which was my reason for going to the show because her "butter is the answer to everything" approach cracks me up. I'm glad that I got discount tickets through Groupon and only paid a total of $25 for the show and the demo.