Michael Symon's cookbook, "Symon Says" will be coming out next year around this time.
The recipes he made at The Fabulous Food Show are going to be put up on his blog. They are not there yet but the site url is:
http://symonsays.typepad.com/
The dishes were both appetizers. One was a date and almond dish and the other were little Greek meatballs.
By the way, he said one should always buy ground meat that is 70% meat 30% fat. The fat will keep the meat moist, add flavor and drain away in the cooking process.
He said that despite what Mario Batali said one should never cook with evoo because the smoke point is too low and it breaks down which is a waste of money and flavor. He uses regular olive oil to fry and then, finishes dishes or makes salad dressings with the good stuff.
Same with salt. He only uses kosher salt to cook with and finishes a dish with sea salt. He also decried all processed foods and dried herbs.
He said that garlic presses are worthless and smashed a garlic with his chef's knife to prove his point. He also showed how to take the bitterness out of the garlic by removing that middle little germ. Also, only make one pass through fresh herbs or the oils will wind up on your cutting board instead of your dish.
He thanked all of his fans from the bottom of his heart, made jokes at his own expense, laughed a lot, introduced his parents, and wife and staff and said he is a "Cleveland boy at heart." He still wants to stay here.
The crowds went wild--we were the last show of the show--there was a lot of hijinx between him and Guy Fieri.
Michael is also partnering with his Pastry Chef to open up a patisserie at "Eton Collection" in the Eton mall part called "The Atrium of Shops". He considers his pastry chef to be one of the top five in the country. They will sell pastry and coffee. See. Eton Collection on Chagrin Boulevard:
http://www.etonchagrinblvd.com/
Michael also has tatoos on the back of his right calf: diagrams of beef, pork, and mutton.
btw, Michael Symon has two restaurants in Cleveland:
http://www.lolabistro.com/
and he opened up a restaurant, Roast in Detroit and will be opening up another Roast in Minnesota.
My favorite part of the show this year is that is what primarily focused on Ohio products.
All in all, it was a really nice show and we plan on going next year. No one ran out of food. Sunday the crowds weren't bad. The purveyors were nice and answered any and all questions. It really was well done. I think that they learn a little bit each year and try to make improvements.
I don't know if large ticket items sold but a lot of folks were walking around with many, many bags. Lots of food items were sold.
There were some outrageously expensive but gorgeous wood products for the kitchen, bowls, cutting boards and peppermills. Functional art:
See. G3 Studios mills.
http://g3studios.net/
I also saw two baking demonstrations. One was for given by a local bakery in La Place. See
Wedding cakes from The White Flower Cake Shoppe. Cleveland, Ohio area wedding cake designers. I will be taking two master cake decorating classes. One in swiss buttercream and the other in fondant. The best part is one of the partners, a young woman is a lefty like me. Check out the link, their cakes are gorgeous! They were so good that they were invited to be on the food network and I am soooo happy for them.
If you want to hear more, let me know.