Good Taste with Tanji - Wine, food and fun with Tanji Patton.

What fun this weekend at the Metro Cooking Houston event! It’s not every day you get to interview two major food stars and watch them work their magic onstage. That’s what we did Saturday. Up first to our ‘hot seat’ was Giada about her passion for chocolate and all things Italian. The petite, and I do mean petite, beauty is as lovely on the inside as she is gorgeous on the outside.

Paula Deen was a hoot! Outgoing, warm and vivacious. After the camera turned off, Paula went crazy over my tie-dyed jeans I bought at Julian Gold. She loved the ‘britches’ as she called them. I’ll put both Paula’s and Giada’s interviews together soon, so you all can see them here.

Later that morning at the show, I had the pleasure of working with the HEB Cooking Connections Chefs to warm up the audience for Paula and Giada. After we got offstage, Paula’s security guard cornered me and said Paula wants you backstage. So, I headed behind the curtain to see what was up. She said, “I want you to stand right there.” Huh? Her security guard positioned me right in front of the curtain to the side of the stage, and then a few minutes later Paula was introduced, the crowd went wild, and the show began.

A few minutes into her act, Paula called me up on the stage. She proceeded to brag on my ‘britches’ spinning me around to show the crowd the jeans. She was great fun….as was the entire event.

The BUZZ food item from the show came from our friends at Cooking Connections…something called Bacon Jam. It’s delicious!!!

Mix it with cream cheese, cook it with shrimp, green beans….almost anything. Imagine all the bacon favor with practically none of the fat! Those jars were flying out of the show left and right. If your HEB has Cooking Connections, you can find it there.

For more information on our weekend at Metro Cooking including our interview with PBS Chef extraordinaire Jacques Pépin, head to my blog Tanjents.