On Thursday, March 26th, 2015, Pay Chen, TV & radio host, writer, and producer, collaborated with Rock Lobster Food‘s Chef Matt Dean Pettit to host the first Canola Eat Well Culinary Workshop. The event marked the launch of a six-part series of Canola Oil inspired farm to food experiences. Eight of Pay Chen’s lucky Twitter followers were invited to Luxe Appliance Studios to cook up a storm with Matt Dean Pettit and guzzle down some Boston Lager from the event’s sponsor Samuel Adams Brewery.
The theme of the event was a Classic Fish Fry with a menu that was the result of a month of careful planning by Chef Matt Dean Pettit. It featured plenty of Asian influence courtesy of his recent adventures through Thailand. Though the menu was created by Matt, the bloggers and guests got their hands dirty frying, grilling, and baking the five course Canola Oil inspired feast. The meal started with Pla Pao: Grilled Salt-Crusted Red Snapper, followed by Smokey Citrus Fried Smelts with Crispy Tarragon Frites. Then came Roasted Spring Veggies and Fried Blue Crab in Coconut Curry, rounded out by Roasted Bone Marrow with Fried Capers. We ended off the meal with a sweet treat of Spring Rhubarb Baked Crumble.
We also got a little Canola crash course from the Canola growers themselves. They taught us all about its health benefits, like how little saturated fat it has (half that of olive oil) and how high it is in Omega-3s. We also learned about its versatility — like how its super high smoke point (242 C) makes it Matt’s preferred cooking oil. We even learned how to crush the tiny little Canola seeds to extrude the oil.
The evening was full of snacking, snapping selfies, and socializing on and off line. All of our guests got to take home tons of great swag and one of our Twitter friends from Halifax, Nova Scotia even won a Tassimo coffee maker by participating in a Canola Eat Well Twitter contest. Guests were Tweeting, Instagramming, and blogging so much that #EatWellCanolaOil was trending that night! Make sure to check out the hashtag for more from the event.
