This past weekend marked the 18th anniversary of the Vancouver Wellness show. I had the great fortune to not only attend, but I was also assisting with the Celebrity Demo Stage! It was hear that numerous renowned chefs from around North America were given the opportunity to showcase some of their talent. There were appearances from many well known local chefs such as Tojo (world famous sushi chef), Antonio Cerullo (Executive chef for Choices Market), Aaron Ash (Gorilla Food), Bal Arneson (author of Everyday Indian) and Terry Walters (author of Clean Foods). There were many more from such restaurants as Raincity Grill, Nu, Stanley Park Fish House and Quatro.
For the first few demonstrations, I felt a bit out of my league. I looked around to see over a hundred attentive pairs of eyes eagerly watching the chef on stage as they went through a 40 minute cooking seminar. But as the day went on, I quickly began to realize ho down-to-earth these top chefs were. By the time day 2 came around, I was not only helping behind the scenes at the stage, but I was actually front and center chopping and dicing with Bal Arneson! It was quite a rush to be standing shoulder to shoulder with someone like that and preparing a couple of delicious dishes together.
As you can guess, working with so many outstanding chefs was my highlight to the weekend. But the event had much more to offer than just cooking demonstrations. There were countless seminars and workshops throughout the days, many other types of product and service demonstrations, and of course the samples! From chiropractors and energy healers, to new organic cereals and cheeses, the show really had it all.
This years show was slightly delayed due to the Winter Olympics and the resulting venue availability. And The Vancouver Marathon provided an additional obstacle for attendees on the last day of the event. But all-in-all it was a great show. If you missed it this year, I strongly recommend marking your calendars for next year. It’s sure to be good as ever!
