Me, Jacques Pepin and the Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off

I recently attended my first cook-off and celebrity chef event at the 4th Annual Manischewitz Cook Off in Manhattan. Perfectly timed before the start of Passover, the cook-off celebrated recipes that featured Manischewitz All-Natural Broth. The recipes were all certified kosher, though not necessarily kosher for Passover. (Though Manischewitz did display their new kosher for passover products and I nearly went silly once I got home hunting down the new cotton candy for the kiddo to try.) It was the first cook-off I've attended and I may be hooked!

The day began with a private media tasting with the legendary Chef Jacques Pepin. While I was familiar with him from his series on PBS Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way (and More Fast Food My Way), I learned that he began his formal cooking apprenticeship at age 13 (easy when your parents run a restaurant), and quickly earned respect for his creations, even serving as personal chef to three French heads of state - including Charles de Gaulle in the late 1950s. He moved to the US in 1959 where he made further contributions to the culinary arts and recently earned France's highest civilian honor, the French Legion of Honor. 

Pepin was friendly - introduced himself to my friend Esti and me as we entered the room - and chatted with us about his career and the two dishes of his that were adapted with Manishewitz products to be certified kosher for our tasting: the chicken bouillabaisse and chicken supremes with tapenade and mushroom sauce. Both were yummy, though I preferred the chicken bouillabaisse myself.

It was exciting to meet the cook-off finalists and watch them cook as the timer ran down. Not as intense as Iron Chef, but still exciting. It was even fun to watch them present their dishes to the judges and watch their reactions! Mayor Bloomberg proclaimed the day as "Man-O-Manischewitz" day.

All of the cook-off finalists' dishes were yummy, though the winning recipe was for Mandarin dumpling soup, and it seemed to be the most unique from the other finalist entires. It also seemed to be the simplest to make from what I saw, which means it's the most likely for me to try at home. ;-) The winning recipe was from Sarah Freedman-Izquierdo from Miami Beach, FL.

I had a great time and love that I had the opportunity to hang out with my bloggy friend Esti and meet some new bloggers and Twitter users.

Comments

[Esti]

What a great time we had that day and you are so much fun! I hope we can attend more of these together in the future! I can't wait until next year's cook-off:)