Fabulous Food Show @ I-X Center 11/14-16 "We just looooove you, Paula," crooned one ardent fan during a live Paula Deen cooking demonstration at the Fabulous Food Show this past weekend. "My aunt is with me and she loves you too, and we really love your fruit tarts," enthused the fan. Silver-haired Paula Deen, one of the Food Network's Queen Chefs, was a big audience draw at the Main Kitchen Theatre inside the I-X Center. Other chef headliners included Cleveland's own, Michael Symon, Food Network Iron Chef extraordinaire, Cleveland native Andrew Carmellini, Guy Fieri, Hayden Wood, and Paula's son, Bobby Deen.

"Ohio Made, Ohio Proud" was a big theme with the Ohio vendors at this year's Food Show. In addition, there was an abundance of high quality food purveyors from across the country including the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute cooking tasty morsels of wild salmon. Two hundred food exhibitors offered delicious tastings, and cooking and cutlery demonstrations. Thousands of people lined up for samples of Famous Dave's Barbeque, Cookie Cupboard Gourmet Dough, Executive Sweets, Del Grosso pasta sauces, and the Natural Disorder Gourmet Foods, along with many others. An eye-catching display of six large colorful sculptures, no, they were actually decorated cakes from the White Flower Cake Shoppe, made passers-by stop and take notice. Not to be outdone, chocolate lovers united at the Chocolate Bar where fountains overflowed with, you guessed it, chocolate, for dipping fresh fruit and cake morsels.

Walking up and down the aisles, booth to booth, we were all part of a huge progressive dinner, chewing and talking and drinking, a culinary delight for our palates. And for people into specialty wines and beers, the Grand Tasting Pavilion was the place to be. Over 40 wine vineyards and distributors along with four beer companies displayed product information and provided sample tastings. Entertaining wine presenters welcomed everyone at the scheduled Cleveland Wine School wine tasting sessions where we learned what regions the grapes come from, typical characteristics of the wines, and the differences in fruity, acidic, and tannic wine tastes.

Being the holiday time of year, the Food Show was the perfect place to find that thoughtful gift for someone special in your life. Know someone who enjoys the challenge of making something from scratch? Leeners from Northfield has a wide variety of You Make-It Kits. With these specially designed kits, you can make bubble gum, soft pretzels, mustard, corned beef, brewed beer and sake, and the list goes on...Sillycone of Bay Village sells silicone ice trays and baking molds of letters and numbers so that you can freeze or bake messages as added decoration. The Fabulous Food Show is a Not-To-Be-Missed experience filled with lots of exclamation points. Great fun! Zesty flavors! Yummy! And going beyond my taste buds, I even learned a few new things as well. Mark your calendar for next year. Visit http://www.fabulousfoodshow.com for more information.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul susn1ATatt.net
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