Greetings from Charleston, where Tom and I have traveled for the Southern Living Contest. Southern Living is treating us well. We're staying right in the heart of the historic area in a hotel called the Mills House Hotel (no time to post links, sorry).
Getting here was a bit crazy, involving changes of itinerary and airlines, but we got here in time for me to go through our orientation. We're cooking at the new culinary school at Trident Tech here, so it's a pretty cool setting.
Last night we met my cousin Garrett and his wife Elizabeth for drinks at a restaurant called High Cotton. We had great appetizers -- fried oysters, carpaccio, and a mushroom bruschetta. Tom & I had a nice dinner afterwards (we both ordered beef).
I was picked up at the hotel at 7 a.m. and started cooking at 7:30. We had to have our dishes plated and ready to go at 9:30. I'm not very good at timing, but everything went fine. The other two healthy dishes looked really good -- they both were more colorful than mine. So now it's up to the judges.
Then it was on to the Galliard Auditorium to rehearse for a stage show Southern Living will put on tomorrow night. That's when the winners will be announced. Tyler Florence hosts, which should be exciting.
So the hardest part is done and we're off to have some fun in Charleston!
Family and friends, I'll post the results late tomorrow night or early Friday morning.
