My First Real Show: A Nervous Adventure in Cooking and Serving

[Monty060609]

I was soooo nervous!! I thought I would keep the recipes super easy and then I'll just talk and showcase the tools separately. So I made the chicken in the DCB and garlic parm bites, neither of them use many tools but I had everything else I owned out on the kitchen table, since it was in my home. But I must have looked like the biggest amateur:
I kept dropping tools
I put the chicken upside down and when I took it out I couldn't figure out where all the white meat had gone! :grumpy: Although it did look awesome and I just moved on and told people to taste it when it cooled down
I thought the biscuits sounded soo easy that I didn't try them out first for timing in the oven and they weren't done when following the directions I only have the 8" pan they would work better in the 10" (but were AWESOME after a few extra minutes)
I totally forgot to give someone 10% off for bringing a guest, which I will do on Weds when I see her
I didn't pay attention to one guests order being at $55 where she could have ordered one more little thing and gotten a spatula for free!
I'm pretty sure I did a HORRIBLE job at full service checkout all together.

I see the good in all of this, is that I learned BUT all of that bad stuff. And I'm quite sure everyone had a good time and there was laughing and happy people and they all knew that it was my first real show so they were good. but stillllll :cry:

 

[scottcooks]

All of us have a bad early show story - come to regional meeting or nat. conference and compare! My 1st had only 3 guests and I took 3 hours to make Cherry Chocolate Mousse pie - yummy but worth it??! Then 1 had a show, and a guest at her show held a 3K fundraiser! Keep it simple. Have fun! Be nice.

 

[wmrmgr]

Thanks for sharing your experience! My "first show" had one guest show up, and her young daughter was having a sleep-over so I had 3 or 4 screaming girls there "helping" me. I chose to do the taffy apple tartlets since she didn't want me showcasing the DCB because she doesn't use her microwave (gasp!). Anyway the kids really liked the recipe. It was at the end when I was working with the butterscotch caramel sauce and using a sandwich baggie to drizzle the sauce over the tarts and I was praying that the bag didn't explode (it was an el-cheapo brand baggie). I was on the last couple tarts and the bag exploded big time - caramel sauce running down my arm, hand completely covered, etc. So as I'm rushing to the kitchen sink I have this sweet little 6-year-old girl that says to me "you can lick your hands now!" And so I did!!! However, the show ended up not counting because there was less than $50 in orders so I had to take the one order I did get and tack it on to my open house the following day.

I have yet to have an official cooking show. The other show I had scheduled changed to this past week and then she cancelled the night before again; I rescheduled a third (and final) time hoping that the third time is the charm. I was also scheduled to do a cooking show this past Friday night but her roommate decided she didn't want all those people over so the cooking show got converted to a catalog show.

It's all good!!!

 

[Jolie_Paradoxe]

Congrats....your first show is now under your belt! Sounds like everyone had fun, so kudos! Did everyone love the chicken? Get any bookings?

 

[Monty060609]

Congrats....your first show is now under your belt! Sounds like everyone had fun, so kudos! Did everyone love the chicken? Get any bookings?

Thanks. Yes everyone that tried it loved it. I got two yeses on bookings but no set date, part of my failed full service check out.

But I did also explain the mystery host catalog show and I think almost everyone was interested and wanted to try that. So hopefully it will spark some interest on a cooking show.