My First Live Cooking Show @Macys @CulinaryCouncil With @ChefMingTsai

My Mother is a cooking show fanatic!! Anytime you go over to her house, some cooking show is on!!!

When we lived in Connecticut, my Mother was happy as a clam to tell everyone that we lived right down the street from Jacques Pépin!!

When I told her that Macy's invited me to watch Chef Ming Tsai cook for me, she started by saying "Yeah whatever" When I then told her she could go too, the attitude dropped, and she was extremely excited!! I was offered the chance to bring the whole crew (Husband, Father, Mother, and two Kids!!)

We arrived early (for once!!) and explored Macy's for a little while. My Mom found new sheets!! Then we parked our rumps and waited to see the show.

We were given an entry form to fill out for the chance to win a Kitchen aide Mixer!! (My friend Melanie from The Coupon Goddess won!!)

We soon signed in, and headed into the curtained off area for the show.

The seating was nicely done, where everyone could see Chef Tsai at the podium, and you could also see the TV that gave an up close view of him actually cooking the food.

When we were all seated, some crew members came around with water bottles for all. It was very needed with all the laughter!!! They came around every 10 minutes or so offering more waters!!

Chef Ming Tsai was hilarious!!! He made a lot of jokes, answered all of our questions, and was very tolerant of my not 100% quiet kids!!!

We got to watch him make two dishes. The first was a Shrimp, Mango and Local Herb Summer Roll.

He explained to us what Rice Paper is and showed us how to wet the rice paper properly to prepare the Roll.

It was a lot of fun to listen and watch him prepare this dish. Then what was extra nice was they actually brought each person their own plate to try!! There was a couple of hidden friends preparing the dishes for us.

Oh and these were very, very yummy!!!

The second dish he made for us was Wok-Stirred Vegetables and Rice Noodle Salad.

The whole time we watched everything from the TV.

When Chef Tsai was done, magically we were all treated to a nice sized dish of this as well.

This was my favorite dish!!! I ate every last bite, and my boys did too!! For my birthday my parents bought me a wok. This will be the first dish we make with it. It really was that good, and I am soooo glad that Macy's gave us each copies of the recipes to take home.

After the show was over, we got to meet and have our picture taken with Chef Tsai. He was a very friendly man, and he clearly was good with children!!

As a thank you gift, Macy's gave everyone who attended a $10 gift card. We used ours to buy Chef Tsai's cookbook, and he autographed it for us!!

Afterwards, the terrific PR Rep, Britton, who invited us to attend, took all of us Bloggers to a local restaurant called JM Curley's where we had drinks, appetizers and great conversation!! The food was very good, and the atmosphere was nice. It was a little tough having kids with us (more an adults place) but the kids loved sitting at the bar, having waters that looked like adult drinks, and eating (boys are always happy with food!!)

Over all we had an excellent time. I was nervous about bringing the kids, but for the most part they were really good.

Thank you very much Macy's and Chef Tsai.

**All opinions expressed are 100% my own. I was not compensated for this post. I was given the chance to attend the show, a $10 gift card (as did everyone who attended, including non media), and a thank you get together afterwards.**