Cooking school demonstration wows crowd
Hundreds of people arrived hours early to stand in line until it was time
to go in.
LEWISTON- They giggled when cook Elise Bratcher warned them not to confuse a bulb of garlic with the much smaller clove.
They murmured softly when she showed them how to cut parsley without turning the cutting board green.
But it was her freshly baked bread that finally got to the Taste of Home Cooking School’s 1,000 audience members.
“Ooh!” they exclaimed together, then laughed.
For more than two hours Tuesday night, area residents packed the Lewiston Middle School’s auditorium for lively cooking demonstrations from the Taste of Home Cooking School, a traveling cooking show associated with the popular Taste of Home magazine.
Surrounded by cooking appliances and flanked by large screen TVs that gave close-ups of every movement, Bratcher showed the audience how to make a dozen different dishes, from a simple green bean casserole to the more complex lemon meringue pie.
Sponsored by the Sun Journal, it was the seventh year the school has come to Lewiston.
The room was filled with die-hard fans.
Hope Liming of Lewiston waited outside in line for an hour and 45 minutes, braving the cold and drizzle before the doors opened so she could be the first to snag a good seat at the sold-out show.
“The smells. The cooking. It’s a fun time,” she said.
Liming wasn’t alone. Hundreds of people got to the school hours early, forming a line that wound around the old brick building and into the school parking lot.
Such devotion is common at the Taste of Home Cooking School shows.
“It’s like Toys R Us after Thanksgiving,” said Bratcher, as she got ready for the show backstage.
Most of the eager audience members were women, working moms who wanted some quick, simple recipes, and retirees who loved to cook.
Sister Madeleine Normand of the Holy Cross Parish in Lewiston got to the school about two hours before showtime. She brought four friends.
“It’s just a wonderful time. It really is,” she said.
Normand, 64, who had been to four Lewiston Taste of Home Cooking Schools, said she liked the fun, lively atmosphere. She liked the community spirit that seemed to envelope every audience.
She liked watching someone cook.
“I’m always looking for new recipes,” she said.
Although the show is always shamelessly promotional, with Bratcher plugging Crisco oil, Jimmy Dean sausage and the foods of other sponsors, audience members didn’t seem to mind.
They came to watch her whip up a chocolate tortoni using fresh whipped cream and wild rice with cranberries and caramelized onions.
Once, as the smell of garlic wafted through the auditorium, 1,000 people murmured “Mmm.”
“It’s really lived up to my expectations,” said Normand during a break.
Especially Bratcher’s rich Pomodoro sauce with pasta.
“It’s something we’ll eat at home,” she said.
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