One of the benefits for the restaurant brokers of attending the recent National Restaurant Association trade show was attending celebrity food demonstrations.

We sat in on Cat Cora’s demonstration and were later fortunate enough to meet with her one on one.  We thought we knew her as a Food Network star but learned a lot about this powerhouse in a short time while she was multi-tasking on stage, cooking up an incredible meal, taking questions from the audience and promoting her many product lines.

Many people know that Cat was the first female Iron Chef winner on Food Network (and amazingly, there have only been two women in the entire time of the competition).  What we didn’t know however is that she joined Food Network when it was a fledgling operation, way back in 1996.  From that time until today, she has built an empire around her name as a brand with celebrity endorsements.

Before we get sidetracked on all that, however, the restaurant brokers will share some of her kitchen secrets.  She was asked by the audience what she keeps on hand in her kitchen at all times and the answer was, "some form of citris, a good olive oil, garlic, onions and a protein."  With those ingredients, she can whip up a meal.  She demonstrated that by making an arctic char fish dish sauted in olive oil with a sauce made from olive oil, butter, clam juice, garlic, onion and meyer lemon.  We could both see and smell this from the audience and it looked delicious.

She also put together a quick watermelon based cold soup for a starter and demonstrated her low calorie version of a Banana Split (Tip - she makes it with healthy Greek Yogurt instead of ice cream).

Cat has recently endorsed a footware product line which consists of chef sturdy footwear that can hold up in the kitchen but also makes it out of the work area and into the dining room with style.  Each shoe in the line has a rather large heel (a nod to her short stature - under 5 feet tall!).  This restaurant broker is only 5'3 and I felt positively tall next to the petite powerhouse that's a household name in the Food world thanks to her Food Network status.

At the same time she's operating eight restaurants around the world (latest in Singapore), she's also doing guest appearances, releasing new cook books, designing shoes, clothing and also has a line of Cat Cora cookwear.  My goodness, I'm exhausted just writing about all this, much less doing it all.

This wasn't the only celebrity chef citing at the National Restaurant Association show.  We spied Aaron Sanchez from Chopped (one of this restaurant brokers favorites!).  He was also hanging out at the footwear giant Moza footwear booth as well as cooking.

In addition to these celebrity chefs, hometown favorite Rick Bayless was on hand for book signings and demonstrations along with Mike Isabella and Anne Burrell.

It's always fun to see your Food Network favorites up close.  This network seems to attract the cream of the crop.  No matter how many "celebrities" the restaurant brokers have been exposed to from the channel in our travels or when we were on Atlanta radio, they share a common trait of always being gracious, knowledgeable and willing to take time for a photo.

Here's restaurant broker Robin Gagnon with Cat Cora.  We are both in heels by the way and I'm finally taller than one person in the room! 

It's hard to believe that Food Network has only been around since 1993. According to Wikipedia, it was founded in April of tha year as TV Food Network and later became just "Food Network."   That simple idea has grown until it is now seen in 90 million households around the world.  It's on many hours a week at the restaurant brokers home - how about yours?