Hanging out with Top Chef Tour

I was still riding on a foodie high after Sara Moulton’s cooking demo and book signing. An early morning cup of mocha Chai tea from a local coffee shop two doors down from the kitchen store definitely wasn’t going to sustain my hunger pains for much longer. I realized I was getting pretty darn hungry.

The Strip District neighborhood was alive with cultural flavors from vendors dotting the street every few hundred feet. There are very few places in Pittsburgh where you could get mung bean pancakes, grilled chicken skewers, fried rice, Italian pastries and tacos all in a single walk. I love the idea of munching on food while on the move. It helps me justify all the extra calories because I’m exercising as the same time…right? On a side note, I would be the size of a house if I ate all the items I just listed in one sitting. But, I have been tempted to do just that before.

Much to my surprise, three blocks from the kitchen store was the Bravo’s Top Chef Tour stationed with a cooking demonstration studio and a booth with assorted Top Chef gear. I was shocked to find former contestants Richard Blais and Eli Kirschtein signing autographs and taking photos with a small cluster of locals. I never really got into watching Top Chef with the exception of season 4 because it was filmed in Chicago, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to stop and snap a couple of pictures.

I stayed long enough to watch them do a cooking demo to an audience of around 30 people. Like monkeys at the circus, they bantered back and forth in hopes someone would throw them a banana. “Dance…monkeys…dance,” I kept thinking to myself as they fumbled through an increasingly uninteresting cooking demonstration. I actually lost interest about halfway through and decided to move on with my day.

Overall, it was exciting to have two major celebrity experiences in one day. It definitely made the mini doughnuts I got for dessert from Peace, Love and Little Donuts taste all the better.

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