Cooking with Giada

I don't have a written Bucket List (things I want to do before I kick the bucket) but if I did, meeting Giada De Laurentiis would be on it.  Not only did I get to meet her a few weekends ago, but I got to COOK with her. 

Let me catch my breath and I can tell you the whole story.

I saw an advertisement for a Cooking Expo on the Food Network.  I looked online at tickets were $75 each.  That is not in the envelope budget, so I put the idea aside.  A few weeks later a Groupon came through for half off and I jumped on that super quickly.  I also convinced Lane to go with me becuase I played up the fact that there would be free food there all day.  And downplayed the fact that the event is 99.9% women.

We set off on a Saturday unsure of what to expect.  I didn't have much of an idea as to what might be there or going on.  The web site made it seem that you had to pay extra to meet any of the famous folks, so the bar was set pretty low.

We roll into the Cobb Galleria Center and people were filing into an auditorium.  We followed.  I started to gather some clues that there was going to be a cooking demo.  I started to brim with excitement.  The emcee mentioned that Giada would be coming out soon and I was unable to hide my excitement.

We stealthly made our way to some pricey VIP seats that didn't sell and awaited for Mrs. G herself.  She came out and introduced herself - and she is so gorgeous.

She mentioned that she would cook three things and would need three volunteers.  People threw up their hands almost all at once, including Lane and me. 

She chose an older gentleman for the first round.  He was endearing, but I knew I had to get up there.  She called out for the second volunteer and before you could even think I was up on Lane's shoulders waving my hands as if I were landing a jet plane.  At the same time Lane was pointing to his crazed wife on his shoulders. 

Giada scanned the crowd and I could feel her staring our way.  She threw her hands up and said, "Well, I can't say no to that."  I ran down the aisle straight up Price is Right style.

I reached the stage and put on my game face.  She introduced me to the crowd and asked what loon was holding me on his shoulders to get her attention.  We chatted about my favorite dish to cook and I told her.

She asked me if I liked salmon and I nodded enthusiastically yes. (Even though I am not a huge fan)

She explained what we were going to cook and we went to town.  I nervously shook while trying to act cool, calm and collected.  She asked me to cut chives and my hands were shaking as if I was about to meet the Pope.

We cooked for about 20 minutes on stage.  She took questions while I worked on the salmon patties.  It was bliss.  I was cooking on stage with Giada, my favorite TV chef. 

We finished the segment by sampling our freshly made salmon patties and much to my surprise they were awesome.  I took the dish back to the row where I was seated and shared it with my twelve new friends.

It was a blissful day.  I finished off the day by purchasing an autographed copy of her new cookbook. 

Here are some pictures from the day, followed by the recipe that she and I cooked. 

Here is the link to the recipe:  http://www.ozimandius.com/images/uploads/Laurentiis_SalmonCakes.pdf