1. Bore them with measurements. No one wants to watch you measure out everything while you cook. Solution: Premeasure everything in neat little cups and bowls. This keeps the work space clean and organized and it helps you go faster.
2. Use very fancy equipment. Remember you want to make it fun and easy. Solution: Use the equipment your attendees are likely to have at home. Of course it is good to offer tips for easy items like rice cookers, nonstick skillets and toaster ovens. But avoid the most expensive copper bowl or pots and pans from an expensive store.
3. Kill yourself preparing everything in advance. Solution: A great way to save time and energy is to have attendees wash their hands, don aprons and help you chop and cook. It keeps the demo interesting, relevant and moving. As one of our customers just said yesterday - it is all about them. If it looks fun and easy, everyone will want to try it.
4. Hide the ingredients. Yes, we did tell you to premeasure. Solution: But you do want to save and show all ingredients. Talk about the garlic powder that has parsley but no salt. Show them the canned tomatoes that are diced and ready to go without salt.
5. Forget the presentation. A grand finale, before allowing everyone to taste your items, is to make a beautiful presentation on a large oversized platter. Solution: Use a large white plate. We love white plates - everything looks more professional on white. Don't be afraid to mix and match plates - we have a huge stack of "orphans" in our kitchen of all sorts of white china that is fun to serve upon. We are always shopping and looking for china for presentations.
And here are a few tips more to keep your demo smooth -
- Practice, practice, practice. Make your demo item a few times for dinner yourself.
- Smile and have fun along the way - pretend that you are cooking for a best friend.
- Have handouts with recipes they can refer to along the way so they are not worried about writing down the recipe - and they can take notes to help them learn your valuable tips. Make sure you put your name and email/website address so they can contact you afterwards for more info.
- Break the ice. Yesterday we got a call from a long time subscriber. She is going to start her demo by removing all of the prepared foods from a virtual pantry onstage. And she is going to explain how one of her valued clients did exactly that - he pitched the canned/boxed goods in his kitchen and he and his wife each lost almost 20 pounds by following the DASH diet, cooking all meals and using fruits and vegetables front and center. He became her client because he was concerned about their health when his 36 year old brother suddenly passed away from a stroke. It is always great to use a testimonial or ice breaker story in the beginning.
Here is a favorite recipe from our library - it uses tilapia which is an inexpensive fish (you could also use chicken) and the baked salsa brings more flavor, more vegetables and less salt.
Salsa-Broiled Tilapia
16 ounces tilapia fillets
2 cups chopped tomato
1 lime, juice only
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2- teaspoon minced jalapeno
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Preheat oven broiler.
Place fish in baking dish and top with tomato, lime juice, green onion and jalapeno.
Broil until fish is done, about 10 minutes.
Serve fish hot with baked salsa spooned over the top and garnish with chopped cilantro (or parsley).
Serves 4. Each serving: 130 calories, 3.2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 57 mg cholesterol, 59 mg sodium, 6 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 19 g protein.
Happy cooking!
Judy
This wonderful vegetarian dinner was easy to make. It used 15 different vegetables and only took about 15 minutes to prep. The baking time was 1-1/2 hours - and it was unattended. The house smelled wonderful and now we have leftovers for tomorrow, too.
I found these graffiti eggplant in the market today and immediately thought of making ratatouille and a vegetarian roasted dinner. Roasted dinners are my favorites - you put everything in the oven and then serve when done. The house smells great and there is little attendance time. Plus you are more efficient with energy use because everything goes in the oven.
Ratatouille
Here are the main ingredients:
2 eggplant, cubed
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1 onion
garlic - minced - 2 cloves
1 shallot
1 cup mushrooms
1 bell pepper
2 cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp parsley
1 cup water or broth
Place all ingredients in a large covered casserole:
Bake for 1-1/2 hours.
We also added a steak potato and a fancy yam:
And a spaghetti squash:
It is easy to make this delightful squash -you cut it in half, remove the seeds and place it cut side down in a covered baking casserole. A microwave can cook it in 10 minutes, but we chose to throw it in the oven with the ratatouille and the yams.
And in the mean time, while these items baked, we made an heirloom tomato salad and the snack bowl for the week.
This is celeriac - it is a root that has a distinct celery flavor. It is delicious when put in soups and when shaved or minced finely for salads.
These are heirloom tomatoes. They are non-hybrid, open pollinated tomatoes that are very intriguing in the number of colors and shapes they are available. Generally they are interesting and very flavorful. It was our best choice for the winter market and since we were going vegetarian there is more room in the budget for fun items like these.
The salads, we decided, should be individuals - diners have their choice of red or yellow heirloom tomatoes, complete with julienne (thin strips) of celeriac and shaved organic carrots. We topped these with olive oil and balsamic vinegar glaze and black pepper:
I also bought huge pears and honey crisp apples - so those got washed and put in a bowl in the refrigerator - waiting to be snacks for the week. I noticed they disappear faster when put in a bowl:
It took about 1-1/2 hours for the ratatouille, potato, yam and spaghetti squash to cook until perfect. (The oven was 375-400 degrees):
Here is a shameless plug for our new store:
Add comment