Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Culinary challenge to be held at Desmond Hotel
Culinary challenge to be held at Desmond Hotel
Chester County will host its own version of “Chopped,” at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center.
EAST WHITELAND >> Don’t expect ingredients like cactus flower buds, grasshoppers or cow tongue to show up in participants’ baskets for this year’s Chester County Culinary Challenge.
These ingredients and many other exotic items were part of recent episodes of “Chopped,” the Food Network’s popular 30-minute reality TV show.
Next Tuesday, April 12, Chester County will host its own version of “Chopped,” to be held at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center.
The business-to-business event, which is not open to the public, will be much tamer than “Chopped” but no less fun, according to Nina Kelly, marketing and communications director for the Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau.
The bureau is co-sponsoring the challenge with Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine.
The event is open to corporate meeting planners from companies such as Vanguard, GSK, Comcast and QVC, as well as hospitality executives from the likes of Penn State Great Valley, the Brandywine River Museum, the Sheraton Great Valley and other local meeting sites looking to attract events businesses to their locations.
The bureau sought a novel way to put together people looking for meeting venues with those who market and promote them.
At last year’s event, which the tourist bureau has expanded this spring, culinary teams – put together randomly – were given a basket of secret ingredients to turn into delicious culinary creations. Each basket held the same fresh tomatoes, garlic and artisanal breads, among other items, with most participants turning them into various kinds of bruschetta.
Kelly declined to reveal what foodstuffs will be in each team’s basket this year.
Tourist bureau planners hope that attendees will get to know one another and network while coming up with interesting dishes and wielding chef’s knives and cleavers, said Kelly.
“This event is a newer version of the typical business card exchange,” she observed.
Judges will include Chester County Commissioners Kathi Cozzone and Michelle Kichline.
Visitors Bureau sales manager Courtney Babcock sees the event as a fertile showcase for the hospitality community.
“Last year we had a version of
The business-to-business event, which is not open to the public, will be much tamer than “Chopped” but no less fun, according to Nina Kelly, marketing and communications director for the Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau.
this competition and it was a tremendous success,” she said. “We are expanding the program and anticipate entertaining networking opportunities for our partners and customers.”
The Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau is a not-for-profit independent agency and the official Tourism Promotion Agency, or TPA, for Chester County.
Created in 1963, the bureau is responsible for marketing Chester County and the Brandywine Valley to leisure travelers, motor coach and group tour operators, meeting planners and travel writers. Offices are at the Brandywine Valley Tourism Information Center, 300 Greenwood Road, Kennett and adjacent to Longwood Gardens.
Kelly expects about 120 people to attend. In addition to the gustatory competition, attendees will sample desserts, sip wines from Chaddsford Winery and participate in a raffle of gift items, if they wish.
To register or for more information, visit www. brandywinevalley.com.
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