March 29, 2024

Taste of Home Brings Cooking Fun to Petoskey

Oct. 9, 2015

Anyone responsible for the cooking in a Michigan household has likely heard of Taste of Home. The American magazine, owned by Reader’s Digest, has been around since 1993 and specializes in Midwestern foods and recipe exchanges for its 3.5 million subscribers.

In an unusual twist for a magazine, Taste of Home also goes on tour with its publication, taking their “Cooking School” series of shows around the country. One of the magazine’s chefs presents recipes on stage, and a pre-show expo showcases both national and local vendors.

PAGE TO STAGE

Northern Star Broadcasting Event Coordinator Mary Reynolds says these events truly “take the page to the stage.”

“We coordinate and promote the northern Michigan Taste of Home shows,” she said. “They’re a lot of fun and incredibly popular. This is our sixth year and we always sell out. We’re expecting 1,000 ticketed guests this year.”

Chef Dana Elliott is the culinary expert who will be preparing 10 new fall recipes live on stage at a mini kitchen set; Reynolds called her “fabulously entertaining.”

“She’s the chef who’s been here for the past five shows and she actually has a fan base,” Reynolds said. “We do a meet-andgreet event with her for our VIP guests and we had to extend it half an hour!”

FOOD FOR ALL

Regardless of your cooking ability level, whether beginner or expert, Elliott and the Taste of Home crew show the audience how to efficiently work in the kitchen and how to make the featured recipes.

“A few of the recipes coming up this year include buffalo macaroni and cheese bites, raspberry almond tart, sausage brunch braid and loaded pulled pork cups — yum!” Reynolds said.

For the less fortunate, the event also collects donations for the Manna Food Project.

“All attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable foods to donate,” Reynolds said. “If they do, they get a special sticker and then we’ll spot some of them during the event and surprise them with a little gift. We also bring in a lot of nonprofits to the vendor area so they can get added exposure.”

COOKBOOKS AND COUPONS

You’ll save money, too; everybody attending gets a free gift bag filled with Taste of Home magazines, grocery coupons and a variety of different goodies from the vendors. Taste of Home cookbooks are also on sale at the event.

“I ordered 1,000 cookbooks and we’ll probably easily sell out,” Reynolds said.

Door prizes and on-the-spot games are another part of the fun.

“We’ll be giving away at least $1,000 in cash, plus a top of the line KitchenAid mixer and other prizes from both our local vendors and Taste of Home’s own national vendors,” Reynolds said.

COMMUNITY POWER

Northern Star Broadcasting covers northern Michigan from coast to coast, so this is great exposure for them as the event’s promoter, but Reynolds said that bringing the Taste of Home shows to the region is about far more than that.

“Sure, we like the brand extension for our radio stations,” she said, “but that’s not why we put these shows on.”

“I like how they help the community in a very real way — you look around at the crowd and it’s pure joy. They’re just having a really fun time. That’s when I step back and say, ‘yeah, we did it.’”

Taste of Home Northern Michigan is Saturday, Oct. 17 at Ovation Hall in the Odawa Casino Petoskey. The event starts at 11am. Tickets are $15 and available online at tasteofhomenorthernmichigan.com or by calling (231) 627-0395.

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