Food and Wine with Robert Irvine
On Friday, November 9th we came home around 8:00PM from eating some hot wings at Hooters and Kriss flipped on Tivo to watch an episode of Dinner:Impossible that we had recorded earlier in the week, the Pixar episode. The show hadn’t started yet as I sat down to watch the opening when I turned to Kriss and reminded her that Chef Robert Irvine was going to be in Disney at the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival on Saturday for a cooking demo and to sign books. She immediately scooted up to the edge of the couch and looked at me with a look like she was fixing to jump up in the air. After a brief discussion which was mainly deciding how serious each of us were about it, we were up throwing clothes in a suitcase and snatching Kellie up and within minutes we were backing out the driveway and headed south down I-95 with no hotel room awaiting us. We got to the Disney area around 12:30AM and found a Holiday Inn Express and checked in and quickly went to bed.Saturday morning we took advantage of the “complimentary breakfast” and dashed out to EPCOT. While we didn’t make rope drop, we were there right after the park opened and I headed straight to the Odyssey for the 11:00 cooking demo. I was 45th in line and there were only seats on the main floor for 97 so we were lucky and only ended up standing for about an hour and a half and Kellie was good the whole time, I’m surprised she didn’t get impatient.
Lobster Mashed Potatoes - Robert Irvine
Kriss headed straight to a table with Kellie while I parked the stroller and went to find her at the second table from the stage. Within minutes they were introducing him and out he comes in his usual black outfit strutting through the audience to the stage. He had two sous chefs to help him and picked two very lucky people out of the crowd to go up on stage and help cook. Robert didn’t actually go up and participate in the cooking but what we were served wasn’t cooked on stage anyway, it came from the kitchen. What was on the menu, filet mignon with lobster boursin mashed potatoes and a merlot reduction. Here is where it pays to have a 4 year old with you that may take one or two bites of the steak and then be more interested in the cookie they gave her and play with a Peter Pan figure we bought so we finished hers off too. Robert spent the whole hour walking around us in the audience telling stories about cooking and letting us ask questions. He also let us in on a few upcoming episodes including a guys against gals Iron Chef he had done with Tyler Florence against Cat Cora and Paula Deen, that has got to be hilarious. (The episode will air this November 25th.)
Robert Irvine autographing
When the demo was done we headed straight out to the Wonders of Life Pavilion because they are using it for the Food and Wine Festival for the store, wine tastings, and a book store which Robert was going to be at signing books. Unfortunately they didn’t bring enough books so he was going to sign anything we brought so we grabbed our menus from the cooking demo and the Food and Wine guidebook. The line wasn’t too bad even though the people that didn’t get in to the demo had been waiting there ahead of us and within a short time we were standing at the table shaking hands with Chef Robert Irvine! He is a heck of a nice guy and even posed for a picture with anyone that wanted to which we took advantage of. So while he was signing our stuff Kriss mentions that we “drove down last minute last night from Savannah” and he lifted his head up to her with the biggest grin and said “I live in Hilton Head and was at Paula Deen’s house yesterday.” So he gave her a hug and posed for the picture and we gathered up our stuff and moved along.
The rest of the trip seems comparatively boring after that but we did get to sample a few things, eat lunch at the San Angel Inn in Mexico, and take Kellie to MGM to see the High School Musical 2 Pep Rally. We were actually floored when one of the performers came over and took her by the hand to come up and dance which was hilarious. That night we headed up to the Hard Rock where she also learned some of the motions to Y.M.C.A. I laughed so hard I was crying! I had a brisket sandwich, not bad for not being cooked on a Big Green Egg.
What a fantastic trip, but it seems like the ones that we have done with little to no planning turns out to be the best.
Bigbies with Chef Robert Irvine in Disney
