Luncheon Impossible - The International Builders Show

This week, I attended the International Builders Show in Orlando, Florida. It is a pretty amazing show and fills up two halls of the Orlando Convention Center (not quite as large as the World of Concrete). As you can see from the picture, this year's show was sponsored by our own Bill Langston's Whirlpool, who also had a quite large and impressive booth.

Where is Home Depot one might ask? Never fear, they were a primary sponsor and also had a large booth inside showcasing the products of many of their main suppliers. I had an interesting argument with one of their empolyees, who was trying to get me to sign up for a credit card. She told me that credit cards are what makes America great and what has allowed the economy to expand as it has. I informed her that "efficient credit markets" are what makes the U.S. great and that the lost efficiency (lenders giving anybody a credit card and an interest only home loan) during the last market upturn is what has us staring down a recession right now. About the only thing we agreed on was that I was not going to sign up for one of her credit cards.

Reflections - Luncheon Impossible

If you did not know this about us already, Rachel and I are big fans of the Food Network. We catch Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals" when we get home early enough, and we watch Iron Chef America when it is on (by the way Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's restaurant is in Philadelphia). One of the more interesting shows that I have watched is "Dinner Impossible", where chef Robert Irvine is taken to a kitchen he is not familiar with and given a mission to cook hundreds of meals for various audiences. He has between 4 and 8 hours to prepare the dinner. He has cooked for US Marines at their base before they left for Iraq, at a resort in the Bahamas, and at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

This week, he prepared lunch for about 400 of us at the International Builders Show. They used a format, which was a little different from his previous shows. He actually cooked on stage, while the guys in the back plated the meals that he had begun preparations for earlier that morning. This format was great because the audience got a lot more exposure to him than they normally would. He is quite the character and entertainer. He even took questions from the audience.
For this mission, he was flown to Orlando and driven to the resort where the luncheon was held. The luncheon was at 12 noon. He learned of the mission at 7 AM that morning. In this assignment, he was given one key ingredient of each course and told to build a dish around it. The appetizer ingredient was scallops, which were flown in that morning from Maine. Chef Irvine and the resort staff made savichy from it. I'm not a scallops fan, but the appetizer was wonderful.
I believe "craisens" were the ingredient for the salad. The highlight of this dish was the deep-fried goat cheese that was served on top of the salad. The heat from the "cheese ball" gave a nice contrast to the cold salad, and the flavor was wonderful. The UT catering staff must have identified the secret ingredient for the main course, because it was, creatively... chicken. I kid you not, this may be the best piece of chicken I have ever eaten. Served on top of mashed potatoes and a split carrot, this chicken was tender. The quality of the dishes amazed me considering the staff was preparing and serving over 400 of them.
Desert was a frozen custard on top of a cookie. The accompanying leaf on top was hand-made for each desert. He showed us how he blened the color on the leaves. It was pretty cool.

Chef Irvine is a real talent for cooking and entertainment. If you ever get the chance, watch his show on the Food Network, and be on the look-out for the NAHB International Builders' Show Luncheon.