HAVE YOU EVER...: DAY 9 - I Am Grateful For...EXPERIENCING TORONTO TASTE 2011!

Accompanied by Second Harvest's 2010 ad video for Toronto Taste.

Tonight was amazing...especially for a foodie like me!!! I was covering the 21st annual Toronto Taste (for Second Harvest), held at the Royal Ontario Museum, and it was fabulous. My whole experience was only supposed to include a one hour tour with other media personnel, but it became a little more than that. I had arrived almost an hour early and checked in at registration and was told to just sit and wait until 6:30 arrived. Let's be honest here...sitting and waiting is hardly my forte, so I got up and sort of wandered towards the VIP entrance to take pictures. The black wristband that I was given was being exposed as I was taking pictures and the security guard that was standing beside me said "OH you can go in with that". I was like huh? "OK" and I sauntered in like I was supposed to go in. It was perfect because I was able to take some pictures of the event before I had to ask for interviews, and taste some of the food (although I only tasted one thing). The first thing I saw when I walked in was Bob Blumer, who is the host for The Food Network's "Glutton for Punishment" and "Surreal Gourment" (and I only know this because I looked him up on the internet haha). I don't have The Food Network or cable for that matter so I had to come prepared as he was the host for the evening. I took a few pictures of him (as he was posing with the car that was being given away) and started to walk around. The event was already super busy with people who had paid $250 to get in! Tents were set up everywhere and food was cooking like it was going out of style. The aromas that were wafting around the party were incredible. There was a band playing in the centre and wine being poured within every other tent. After a while I had to go back to the media check in tent and go on my official tour with one of the PR people. We were each given a person to follow us around, which was a surprise to me because I thought we were all going in one big group! That ruined my plan of just listening to everyone else give interviews and me just write down the answers!! BALLS! I had to think of questions on the spot as we were being taken to The Photo Booth to conduct our interviews. I looked like a bit of an amateur at that point. Firstly I had no idea who any of the big names were at this event and secondly I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing! SO...we ended up finding Bob Blumer again and I plunged in taking the chance to give him an interview. It actually went really smooth, minus the part where he had to correct my talking! "You mean APART of the event?" (rather than part of the event). Duh. My tongue got tied and it came out wrong. The rest of the interview was fine and we even got to take pictures in The Photo Booth together! After that interview my PR person and I walked around the event some more. I took some pictures until my freakin camera decided to die because I forgot to charge the damn thing. Perfect. Now I have to use my phones camera which makes me look even more amateurous (not a word but I don't care)!!!!! BAH! Whatever. I'm asking them for pro photos anyways. We ended up stealing a few treats as we were both starving (some smelt from Chef Mark McEwan, and peanut brittle from Dufflet) and who wouldn't when there were 60 of the top chefs in Toronto there!?
After touring the inside portion of the event we went back outside and that's where I got to interview Michael Smith of "Chef At Home" (also from The Food Network). He's a chef based out of PEI and he was SO NICE!!! The interview with him also went very smoothly and he fed us some of his pickerel which was yummy. I couldn't have asked for a better night really. I was lucky my PR person was so lax, and we ended up going way over the hour I was supposed to be allotted! Being there for the cause as well was really nice. Second Harvest is given donated food that's going to be thrown out from restaurants, grocery stores, etc. and they deliver it to 250 social service companies around the Toronto area. It's such a great idea. I am fortunate to have been a part of it this year. So THANK YOU TORONTO TASTE!!! It was a blast :)