Going the Extra Mile at

Barilla Interactive Dinner

You really have to give it up for Lidia Bastianich, the award winning chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and television cooking show host. She could just have put on a food event at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival (Presented by Food&Wine). She could have invited people come in to eat and drink and then go home full and happy.

But she chose to put on an interactive dinner where people who did not know each other learned to work as a team to prepare a meal. Open gas stoves at each table, uncooked plates of fish and vegetables overseen by different personalities offers up a lot of possibilities.

We had a ball. Most of us at our table took a turn at cooking a portion of the meal and as the evening and the wine flowed along we soon were chatting like family members. And that is the idea. The message is clear, food brings people together. It has from the beginning of time.

Each presentation was received with a applause and the cook of the moment was given congratulations for a job well done. If you are used to sitting down and being served this might not be your event. But if you enjoy people, love to cook and have an adventurous spirit, put an interactive dinner on your list of things to do at the next South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

Ray Brasted Article and Photos - ftlauderdalenews.net