TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

A Taste of the Stew

ADVERTISEMENT

By JEFF HOUCK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

FESTIVAL POURS ANOTHER ROUND: The Tampa Bay Wine & Food Festival will be back for another year. An e-mail blast last week announced that the event will take place May 15 to 17. Much of it will be held behind the Don Cesar Beach Resort on St. Pete Beach, just like last year, but a few events will take place closer to downtown St. Petersburg.

Organizers are expanding the beachfront tent area to accommodate additional sponsors and suppliers. Main attractions will include the Outback Steakhouse International Party for the Senses at Mahaffey Theater, the Titanium Chef Challenge, a black-tie gala and auction, and the Perrier Jouet Bubble Bash. Food and wine seminars will be staged along the beachfront. Southern Wine & Spirits and Abilities Foundation again will be putting on the extravaganza. No word yet on prices.

For updates, go to unleashyouralate.com.

SENSIBLE AND DELICIOUS: The Rev. Joe Kendall, my friend and an avid runner and cyclist, makes it a point to cruise through the 8 On Your Side Health and Wellness Expo each year to sample nutritious food while registering for the Gasparilla Distance Classic. This year's expo, which runs Friday and Saturday at the Tampa Convention Center, will feature a booth by Glory Foods, manufacturer of canned and frozen versions of classic Southern dishes such as black-eyed peas. The company is using the expo to promote its line of Sensibly Seasoned products, which contain reduced sodium. To read an interview I did with company president Jacqueline Neal, go to my blog, The Stew, at TBO.com, keyword: Stew.

RECIPE SMACKDOWN: Clearwater resident Lorraine Stevenski will compete on one episode of the new six-week limited series "Ultimate Recipe Showdown."

The show, which is modeled on "Iron Chef," features regular home cooks battling with their favorite recipes in front of a live audience. Stevenski was chosen for her Fresh Marinara Sauce recipe in the Pasta category. Her recipe was chosen from thousands of entries, and she competed against eight other challengers in the category.

The series, which starts Feb. 17, features Food Network stars Marc Summers ("Unwrapped" and "Trivia Unwrapped") and Guy Fieri ("Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," "Guy's Big Bite"). I had a chance to chat with both of them for Table Conversations podcasts, which you can hear by going online to my blog, The Stew.

Summers is best known among a certain segment of the population as the former host of Nickelodeon's "Double Dare." He talks in the podcast about how his fans have migrated from watching him on the kiddie game show to watching him on "Unwrapped" but that he'll always get shout-outs on the street for "Double Dare."

Fieri and I chat about the power of recipes to evoke emotional responses. He also discusses how difficult it is for amateurs to cook for an audience and a panel of judges. Oh, and I dropped an anvil on him; I mentioned Ted Peters' Famous Smoked Fish, a restaurant in South Pasadena that he visited as part of his "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show. Apparently, the hamburgers and smoked fish spread knocked him out.

"MY GREASY LOVER, BACON": Our declaration of 2008 as the Year of the Bacon is picking up momentum. A reader sent along a video of Jim Gaffigan performing his "Bacon" stand-up bit. Sample line: "You want to know how good bacon is? To improve other food, they wrap it in bacon." To see the clip, go online to my blog. And if you have a bacon bit to share, e-mail jhouck@tampatrib.com.

Hungry for more? Read Jeff Houck's food blog, The Stew, at keyword: Stew.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT