100 guests, a unique venue, delicious food AND the 2 co-hosts from America’s Test Kitchen were all the right ingredients for a fantastic Friday night!
In March, TPT hosted a select group of Studio and President’s Society members for an event at the FOOD BUILDING, featuring the new co-hosts of America’s Test Kitchen, Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison. With more than 2 million viewers tuning in each week, America’s Test Kitchen is the most-watched cooking show on public television. Bridget and Julia graciously agreed to join us prior to an appearance at the Minneapolis Home & Garden Show the following day to celebrate the show’s 17th season and share some of their favorite “kitchen hacks” to help us foolproof our cooking at home.
Chowgirls Catering provided guests with savory hors d’oeuvres that featured recipes from America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks – AND there were sweets. In fact, the “Chewy Brownies” (also a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen) had an interactive component. America’s Test Kitchen is known for its food tastings. Based on the tastings completed in the test kitchen, the show’s experts reveal their top recommendations for supermarket staples such as olive oil, soy sauce and CHOCOLATE. As a result, we set up our very own tasting station. And, although many of us taste chocolate all the time in our own kitchens, this was a bit more involved. There were 3 types of dark chocolate – all brand names were scraped off – and the goal was to choose the best chocolate for baking, not necessarily the chocolate you enjoy eating the most. While tasting the chocolates, guests were given a very detailed survey about the flavor and sweetness. Who knew choosing the right chocolate would be so scientific? The winning chocolate – which was a bittersweet, not a semi-sweet chocolate – was also used in the brownie recipe that guests enjoyed for dessert. See what we did there? Attendees also had an opportunity to meet the co-hosts, pose for photos and have their cookbooks signed.
Following the chocolate tasting and reception, everyone made their way into the presentation room where they were welcomed by TPT’s very own Mary Lahammer. You probably know Mary best from Almanac and Almanac at the Capitol, but she’s also the host of TPT’s Farm Fresh Road Trip series. If you’re not familiar with this production, Mary Lahammer visits local cafes to see farm-to-table food prepared right inside restaurants across the state of Minnesota. Coincidentally, Mary made a visit to the FOOD BUILDING on a previous Farm Fresh Road Trip. Be sure to look out for a new episode later in 2017. Until then, you can watch the previous 3 shows here.
Mary kindly introduced hosts Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison. Bridget and Julia have been fixtures on the show from the very beginning, sharing their cooking skills and deep knowledge of food with the hundreds of recipes they’ve prepared on air as test cooks. Now, they’re leading the Test Kitchen to bring us equipment reviews, taste tests and recipes for the home cook.
The topic of their presentation was “Kitchen Hacks,” and they shared fun and useful tips and gadgets they find helpful in the kitchen. A few audience favorites included cutting cherry tomatoes between 2 plastic lids to get the same sized slices, pouring hot water over dry spinach in a colander to get the leaves to wilt equally, and packing a pear in a beer koozie to avoid bruising when taking it for lunch. One of their preferred gadgets (and a crowd pleaser) was a pineapple slicer/corer. This tool makes it incredibly easy to cut and core a pineapple for all your summertime parties. You can find more information about this tool from America’s Test Kitchen here. The crowd oohed and aahed at all the new ideas they learned, and laughed out loud from Bridget and Julia’s delivery, rapport and personal stories.
To see Bridget and Julia in action watch the 17th season of America’s Test Kitchen online here. You can also watch the show Saturdays on TPT 2 at 11:30 AM.
Learn more about this community of TPT supporters and how you can attend events such as this, by visiting: www.tpt.org/philanthropy.
© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.
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