Monday, November 22, 2010

Buick Regal Discovery Tour

Over the weekend, I attended the Regal Discovery Tour, a unique cultural event at the St. Regis, Monarch Beach Resort, near Dana Point, CA and it was sponsored by "Food & Wine", "Travel & Leisure" and "Buick." It was an unforgettable experience where guests learned culinary secrets from one of the top chefs in the country, enjoyed products crafted by local artisans, discover an insider's look into American travel and taste custom cocktails paired to gourmet cuisine. This event was a part Buick's partnership, Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger relief organization. The event was free to all guests while Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, and Buick made donations to Feeding America on behalf of all guests attending and a generous $100,000 was raised during this two-day event. This tour continues on to Los Angeles on December 4 and 5 for those who missed it this past weekend!



Guest Registration area

Buick was one of the vendors there and had show displays of the Regal. After getting a short speech about the vehicle, guests were allowed guests to test drive the vehicle. While the vehicle was really nice, I didn't test drive or take photos of the vehicle...automotive photography was not my forte.

Michael Green, who was another vendor at the event, hosted a free beverage tasting and allowed the guests make a tasty "mocktail" drink. A "mocktail" was basically a non-alcholic beverage. People could use the same ingredients to create this beverage and add vodka or rum to it if they wished for parties. Michael was very entertaining, so anyone who is hosting a birthday party, bacherlor/bacherlorette party. wedding, corporate events or other large events, I would recommend Michael to bartend and entertain your party! Actually, I'm not sure if he will bartend at these events, but you should send some inquiries!

Ingredients for the Coco Tonic Mocktail where guests could create during the demonstration

I forgot his name, but he was from Divine Desserts, etc located in Laguna Beach, CA. He co-owns the store with his wife who wasn't at the event. He doesn't create cakes, but he creates awesome cupcakes and cookies, and caters to parties and events as well as catering to customers with food allergies!

He had red velvet cupcakes with fondant for the event guests to sample. They were delicious! He was personable, funny, and definitely worth working with.


Red Velvet Cupcake from Divine Desserts, etc. made with Chocolate cake with red food coloring and fondant frosting. He mentioned that the red was from the "South".

Michael Stern was also another vendor at the event. While he didn't have any samples to offer to the guests during the event, he did offer a lot of great advice on where we could eat during traveling. He didn't make any suggestions to eat at fine dining restaurants or in touristy areas, but who wants to eat at Denny's when you're on vacation or business trip when you can eat like the locals? With the holidays coming up very soon, are you traveling out of state or to a different part of the state that you've never been to? Visit Michael's website which offers a lot of great information!
Have you heard of Chef Michael Psilakis? I haven't until this weekend, despite that he is a big name chef and was very well-known with many of the guests at the event. He told stories about how he started in this business and currently co-owns two restaurants in New York, "Kefi" and "Gus & Gabriel", both serving Greek style cuisines, and owning one Mediterranean style restaurant, "EOS", in Miami, Florida.

Chef Psilakis did a cooking demonstration for the audience and created the "Fried Pork and Beef Meatballs" which was also pair with the guests' choice of either the "Scotch Pear Cocktail" or "Coco Tonic"; both beverages created by Michael Green.

Fried Pork and Beef Meatballs (from Chef Psilakis) paired with Scotch Pear Cocktail (from Michael Green)

At the end of Chef Psilakis' presentatation, all the guests in attendence recieved a free copy of his cookbook, "How to Roast a Lamb" to which was a generous gift! I don't cook gormet meals, however, I am honored to receive this.

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