Food, Wine & Cars: A Tour of Discovery

On Saturday, the multi-city Buick Discovery Tour rolled into the Loews Hotel in midtown Atlanta offering locals the opportunity to mingle with celebrity chefs, attend cooking demonstrations, participate in a wine tasting and get a first-hand look at Buick’s 2012 line. Buick, in partnership with FOOD & WINE magazine, gave Atlantans the chance to “discover” gourmet cuisine, fine wine and luxury vehicles.

Our tour began with a cooking demonstration by Chef Hugh Acheson, one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs of 2011, current judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef Texas” and owner/chef of the popular Atlanta restaurant Empire State South. Chef Acheson showed us how to prepare a roasted carrot and beet salad with feta cheese and cumin vinaigrette while encouraging the audience to savor seasonal ingredients and local produce. We all sampled the fresh simple salad and marveled at how well the cumin complemented the carrots
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Next we were treated to an exhibition of molecular gastronomy (the application of both scientific and artistic principles in cuisine) by Chef Ben Roche, Executive Pastry Chef of Chicago’s Moto restaurant and co-host of “Future Foods” on Discovery’s Planet Green Network. Toting a huge canister of liquid nitrogen, Chef Roche prepared a batch of bacon ice cream flavored with bacon, maple syrup and sage, and beaten in a mixer with liquid nitrogen. He then re-created his signature “S’mores Bomb,” a caricature of the traditional ice cream bombe, complete with an Asian glass noodle ”wick” that he actually lit.

We were then escorted to the hotel parking lot which was packed with a fleet of 2011 Buicks including the Regal Turbo, Lacrosse, and Enclave. Informative product presenters and a legion of personal driving concierges provided information about the vehicles while guiding drivers around a 2-mile test-drive course. Special thanks to my ride-along partner Tamara who was a great chaperon in demonstrating the luxurious amenities of the new Buick LaCrosse.

Wine Consultant Michael Green, owner of Liquid Assets Consulting Group, gave a captivating and  animated lecture, condensing a 32-week wine seminar into a 20-minute lesson and tasting. Attendees tasted a pouring of Rodney Strong 2010 Charlotte’s Home Sauvignon Blanc and compared its flavor alone and after a bite of lemon noting that the lemon’s acidity altered the drinker’s perception of the wine’s flavor. His best advice is that “if a particular wine tastes good to you, then it is a good wine.”

The grande finale featured charismatic Chef Ming Tsai (producer of  the Emmy-nominated public television cooking show, “Simply Ming,” and owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, MA) slicing, dicing and cajoling his way through his favorite chicken and tri-bell pepper chow mein and sweet and sour mango pork recipes; offering comic relief while proving to the crowd that Asian food is approachable for the home cook. Each attendee was also were presented with a signed copy of Ming Tsai’s Simply Ming One-Pot Meals to take home as a reminder of the amazing event!

And, as if that weren’t enough - for every attending guest, Buick will make a donation to The FEED Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the global food system, starting with ensuring nutritious school meals for all children.