EAT! Vancouver 2005

Just wanted to report that I had a great time sampling my way through EAT! Vancouver in BC Place on April 22nd. I watched Bob Blumer race an audience member in a Kraft Dinner challenge that he devised, and won single-handedly (literally! He made his meal with one hand because they couldn't get the head mic fixed in time, so he only had a handheld). This year's event was much more interesting than the event last year (and included a lot more sampling), but it would be nice to get the AV kinks at the main cooking stage all sorted out before the event. They went high tech, replacing the standard mirror about the cooking stage with a camera, but only aimed the camera at the range top, resulting in the audience either missing half the action or forcing the chef to do all sorts of things awkwardly over the burners. The bowls of hope portion of the event, where you buy tickets that you can trade in for small bites, was actually quite a good deal this year. Six dollars filled me up with all sorts of goodies, including my first sample of Kiwi Pie Company's beautifully flaky savory pies. Also entertaining was Brock Lee's noodle-making demo where he swung his dough around with great showmanship. I also watched the afternoon demo of Rob Feenie, and his new executive chef for Lumiere, and they had great little tidbits about their Iron Chef experience. Funny thing is that I've forgotten the exec chef's name, and it's a little difficult to find his name on the internet. It's always Feenie, Feenie, Feenie! Anyway, it looks like Eat! Vancouver is building up some momentum. Always fun to have another food event around town. I really hope Taste of the Nation comes back to Vancouver though next year. I'll be making the trek down to Seattle to cover their Taste of the Nation event on May 15th, so look out for my first assignment as a foreign correspondent!