Culinary Tent

A wide variety of celebrity, regional and local chefs share mushroom recipes and tips for cooking with mushrooms on the Giorgi Kitchen Stage in the Culinary Tent on Broad Street.

Location: Broad Street, next to the Growers’ Exhibit

Saturday, September 8

  • 1 pm – Melissa d’Arabian, host of Food Network’s Ten Dollar Dinners and Season 5 Food Network Star winner
  • 2 pm – Jennifer Daskevich, 2013 World Food Sandwich Champion, creator of Sandwich America
  • 3:15 pm–  Melissa d’Arabian, host of Food Network’s Ten Dollar Dinners and Season 5 Food Network Star winner
  • 4:30 pm – Jennifer Daskevich, 2013 World Food Sandwich Champion, creator of Sandwich America

Sunday, September 9

  • 10:30 am – Barry Crumlich. executive chef, Pennsylvania Governor’s residence
  •  NOON – Eric Theiss, host at QVC, cookbook author and publisher
  • 2:00 pm –  Nick Farrell, Executive Chef Sovana Bistro, Unionville, PA
  • 3:15 pm – Mark Eastman, of Chef’s Haven in Hockessin, DE

 

Meet the Chefs

Melissa d’Arabian
From her website: Celebrity chef, television host, best-selling author, speaker, writer and mom of four Melissa d’Arabian is an expert on affordable and healthy family home cooking. With a lifelong passion for cooking and varied life experiences, Melissa naturally connects with today’s diverse families as she shares empowering food and lifestyle solutions that are part of a bigger story about how to eat well, be a responsible consumer, and spend with purpose – all while putting satisfying family meals on the table every day. Her distinctive ability to utilize tried-and-true techniques, smart grocery store savings strategies, and superior resource management skills while creating approachable family-friendly recipes as flavorful and elegant as they are affordable have made Melissa a trusted, go-to resource for home cooks everywhere. Learn more.

Jennifer Daskevich
Jennifer is a competitive cook, lawyer, restaurant owner, wine sommelier, award winning food photographer and budding foodie entrepreneur. 2013 World Food Sandwich Champion, and 2015 Chevron Game Day Champion are among her competitive cooking titles. Her motto: A Little Gourmet Everyday!  She is the founder of Sandwich America, an online platform for everything sandwich and is currently the managing partner of Deviled Pig in Tampa, Florida.  Learn more at her website:

 

Barry Crumlich
Barry Crumlich is the executive chef at the Governor’s mansion. As such he uses the great products grown in Pennsylvania as often as possible – including mushrooms.

Eric Theiss
From his website: Eric Theiss’s culinary savoir-faire started in northern New Jersey as a child when his Italian mother gave him his first cook book atage 6.  As a young adult, he worked at The Culinary Renaissance under the rigorous tutelage of acclaimed chef Frank Falcinelli. He opened his own fine dining restaurant and bar called Meritage in West Chester, PA and earned rave reviews from prominent Philadelphia food critics.

Theiss moved on to the culinary broadcast world, working in product development for not only major live shopping networks, but for major celebrity lines as well as his own personal line of cool kitchen tools and cookware, Walah! Theiss remains as a key industry talent and established a successful new publishing company that publishes cook books and pamphlets. Learn more.

Mark Eastman
Chef Mark Eastman is the owner and operator of Chefs’ Haven, a gourmet store and learning center for novice and experienced chefs in Hockessin, DE. His experience includes 28 years in the food industry. Chef Mark attributes most of his talent to his mother and his quality education at New England Culinary Institute Montpelier, VT. Chef Mark , 55, has worked at various area restaurants such as the four-star Brasserie Perrier in Philadelphia, PA, the Dilworthtown Inn in West Chester, PA, and The Gables Restaurant in Chadds Ford PA. Learn more.

Highlights from Previous Years

2017 Culinary Tent Participants

Scenes from 2016’s Demonstrations