This Sunday, March 10 will be Cooking on Q—my 21st 24-hour cooking event at QVC! I just realized that today when driving home. That's something, no?
All these cooking events have had a few things in common: tons of food, lots of people, and a fair amount of chaos. Over the years, the behind-the-scenes chaos has calmed down and is now much smoother than it used to be. When I first arrived at QVC back in 2001, cooking event day was a day that the crew sort of dreaded. Food stylists would need to scramble to secure a table on which they could present their food and products. Tongs and towels were in short supply and hidden away like prized items. People were tired, having prepped food for days, and missed a lot of sleep. Inevitably, tempers would flare and there would be tears before the day was over. These days, our cooking events seem to run almost like clockwork. The prep kitchen has expanded significantly since the old days, more presentation tables have been built, and there are more people on staff to help out and get things done. I say "almost like clockwork," because it's live television after all, and some unexpected surprises are bound to pop up at the last minute.
What has really changed over the years is the product assortment. Cooking on Q is a day full of the latest gadgets and kitchen gizmos. It's always exciting to see what new cooking solutions are out on the market. It's also great to get a peek at the new designs and patterns that have been incorporated into regular items.
What I like best, however, is seeing the tried-and-true products that have appeared at every cooking event. One such item is the KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Everyone I know in the food world loves and respects the KitchenAid Stand Mixer. It's a part of every professional kitchen that I've ever been in, worked in, known, or even heard about. Whenever I think of the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, I remember my very first one and how it came to live in my kitchen.
I was working in California as the manager of a cooking school in a kitchen store. One night when I was at home I received a phone call saying that the school and store were on fire! I jumped in my car and headed over. It was a three-alarm fire and by the time I arrived, fire trucks were shooting water into the building from every direction. A crowd had gathered and there was nothing any of the workers could do but watch the building burn to the ground. Suddenly, one of the store staff members who was a friend of mine yelled to me and called me over to the bookstore patio across the street. She had seen a white KitchenAid Stand Mixer floating out of the store and had grabbed it. It was covered in soot and several scratches, but sure enough, when she plugged it into an outlet, the mixer worked! We were astounded! That poor little KitchenAid mixer—its home had burned down and it had lost everything (including its whisk attachment). It was the least I could do—I adopted it and brought it home. ;-)
I had that mixer for a few years. The smoke stains always reminded me of my old job which I had really enjoyed. After a few years, however, I upgraded to a larger KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Now I have a gunmetal gray, 6-quart KitchenAid Stand Mixer sitting on my kitchen counter. That mixer is older than all the 20 cooking events that I've been involved with, and it'll definitely last me through all the ones yet to come.
So I'll see you Sunday! I'll be on the air with Carolyn Gracie for Kitchen Unlimited with Carolyn at 9am ET and again with David Venable on In the Kitchen with David at Noon ET. Can't wait to see you then :)
—Meredith Laurence