The Big Taste of Houston

So I volunteered for The Big Taste of Houston which was on April 13, about a couple weeks ago.  One of the instructors at my school informed us of the opportunity, there may be some extra credit involved for volunteering (5pts.), and I must say that I had a blast!  The volunteer opportunity was with Cold Stone Creamery... Um the manager of it who was actually working the booth for Cloud 10 Creamery.  He said he would be working one other booth, that's the one I chose.  I love Ice Cream but there was just something fantastic about Museum Park Cafe's smoked steelhead trout on a Panzanella salad with spring greens that I couldn't resist.  The owner, whom at this time is still working out of, as he describes, the small kitchen in his condo is the chef, mastermind behind the dish.  It was so much fun!  He had everything so organized, he bought extras of everything in lots of little containers and fish on trays to ensure we didn't run out to soon which we almost did because his salad was so intensely popular.  They had brought in a deep freezers to keep the ice cream and fish chilled.  The whole event took place inside of The Corinthian in downtown Houston, TX. and the charity event was to benefit Big Brothers & Big Sisters organization by taking a child off the waiting list, placing them with a mentor with every $500 that they raised that day.  There were silent auctions, wine pulls, and free food and drinks from high end restauranteurs and there were many caterers.  I tasted the food too and it was all so very delicious!  There was also a live band.  Once we started, it's like it never stopped!  People kept coming by and I as his Sous Chef worked myself into a sweat trying to keep up with the demand.  First time I ever did anything like that.  But the Chef was a good manager, didn't mind pitching in when it looked like I was falling behind, he was very gracious and appreciative.  It really didn't take long for me to feel comfortable assembling the salads, mixing them correctly, making the dishes pretty and answering a few questions all at the same time.  We had a very interesting lady that stopped by a couple times, she came right up behind our set-up and was involving herself in the process out of curiosity.  She appeared to be deaf, so as she pointed and motioned what her inquiries were I obliged.  First time, I answered her questions and fell so far behind that the Chef had to come and corral my focus back so we could feed the anxious masses that had formed a long line at our booth. The second time she came around I answered her but kept my focus. I wasn't sure if she was one of the judges in the cooking competition (which there was one, featured Star Chefs including Christine Ha, a MasterChef winner which is a cooking competition hosted by 3 legendary Chefs including Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmare's), coming by to agitate things a little or if she was actually a consumer there and was just curious.  Either way the whole experience was fun!

As a foodie I feel confident in telling you that the Steelhead Trout on Panzanella salad from Museum Park Cafe that I just told you about is to die for!  If you are not a salad type of person then I believe with a minimal amount of doubt that you will love this one!  Now, you can't get it yet of course because the restaurant hasn't actually opened.  It's still in his condo.  But you know what to expect when it does, and it will.  He has already got an investor the same as Cloud 10 which was great as well.  Despite my name, I just don't do crumbly well and it had some crumbly stuff at the bottom.  Lots of interesting gourmet ingredients in the ice cream.  It was good, just without the crumbs.  But many other people liked it so it's just a personal preference sort of thing.  I liked it, I just didn't love it!