This weekend DC will be a food lover’s paradise with the 10^th annual MetroCooking DC Show taking place at the Washington Convention Center. From 10:00 am – 6:00 pm on Saturday, October 24^th and from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 25^th. Patrons can attend cooking demos and book signings with top Celebrity Chefs the likes of Giada DiLaurentis, Michael Symon, Bryan Voltaggio and Cristina Tosi, sample tasty delights from over 50 local restaurants in the Grand Tasting Pavilion, taste local brews from the beer, wine and spirits garden, learn new cooking techniques and tips in the Tasting & Entertaining Workshops, participate in the pop-up cooking school to sharpen one’s culinary skills or meet one’s favorite James Beard award-winning chef and watch them share their culinary creations on the James Beard Stage. This weekend promises to be the best MetroCooking DC event ever!

In the lead up to MetroCooking DC, I was invited to attend a media preview hosted at Bryan Voltaggio’s Range at the Chevy Chase Pavilion. Bryan Voltaggio shared a few of his culinary specialties to whet our appetites for the weekend. Bryan will be presenting on the Celebrity stage on Sunday from 12:45 – 1:45 pm followed by a book signing of his latest tome, Home: Recipes to Cook with Family and Friends.

Votaggio did not disappoint in serving us his culinary treats. From his restaurant Aggio in Baltimore, we were presented with his house made squid-ink tonarelli pasta in a sea urchin cream topped with Chesapeake blue crab meat and crispy prosciutto. A pasta lover’s dream! Cooked perfectly al dente, the sauce very light, and the combination of fresh seafood and salty prosciutto was stellar.

From the Range menu, where the craftsmanship of the chefs is featured front and center, a full table of house made charcuterie, nicely selected cheeses, and samples from his Chesapeake seafood raw bar was a perfect preface to his more hearty meat dishes. Votaggio specializes in sourcing ingredients from the Mid-Atlantic region and creating modern interpretations through a combination of classic and progressive cooking techniques. The result is two unusual yet exceptional dishes – Beef Cheek and ½ Pig Face! When was the last time you sat down in a restaurant and had the option to order meat from the heads of farmed livestock? The Beef Cheek was wonderful – incredibly tender and succulent and topped with exceptionally creamy mashed Yukon gold potatoes. The ½ Pig Face – was a great surprise – the perfect balance between crispy and tender. The skin’s crispy crunch was met with tender pork meat with just enough fattiness to render it moist and flavorful. Served in lettuce wraps with a selection of sauces and pickles, it combined the unusual with the familiar.

Of the three vendors in attendance, the most interesting for me was a company out of Baltimore, Tessemae’s, which produces all natural olive-oil based salad dressings and dipping sauces that have every hint of being homemade. Based on a salad dressing recipe of the mother of three boys, the brothers decided to take a leap and once they did, the company grew from selling a few bottles at a farmer’s market to over $35 million in sales in just 6 years. Stop by their booth at MetroCooking DC this weekend to have a taste and to talk to these ambitious entrepreneurs about their story – it’ll have you cheering them on like it did me.

To learn more about MetroCooking DC and to purchase tickets, click here. For Bryan Voltaggio’s Range, click here. And to check out Tessemae’s story, click here.

Hope to see many of you out circulating at MetroCookingDC this weekend!

-SAW (Steve)