Hospitality in Kentucky w/ GE Monogram Blogging Experience

I’m excited to share with you today my recent travels to Louisville, KY, where I visited the General Electric Monogram Experience Center Showroom.

This was my first time to ever be in the state of Kentucky, and I must say that I was so impressed. By the way, did you know that the GE campus has its own zip code?

Hospitality runs deep in this state. So hang on and I’ll tell you more …

We stayed at the beautiful Brown Hotel, starting with dinner in the basement kitchen of the hotel with Chef Laurant Geroli.

What a unique experience, to have the Chef cooking and narrating, step by step, as he prepared so many fantastic dishes.

My favorite was the main course: Cast Iron Veal Chop, Peruvian Potato Gratin (to die for!), and Paris Carrots with Pink Peppercorn Sauce. Oh, man, it was so good.

The plan for the next 2 days was to cook, eat, drink, cook, eat, drink … with hands on training sessions with GE’s sate-of-the-art elegant Monogram line of appliances.

(That’s Brian, Irvin, me and Maggy having a little fun!)

We found out that our blogging group of 18 was the very first group of “food bloggers” to grace the GE facility. What an honor to be invited! By the end of our 3 days together, I’d say we (bloggers and GE staff) were kindred spirits when it comes to food and entertaining, which went well with the sign right outside my hotel window.

Each morning when I opened my hotel curtains to Louisville sunshine, this sign was “right there.” Inspiring! :)

I can’t say enough about how Paula, from the Monogram Showroom in NYC, and Michelle, (below), the Center Training Manager, Megan and Nancy made our experience tremendous, interesting, organized, and very memorable.

Now on to the kitchen and the cooking experience …

We were invited to GE to learn about their high-end elegant line of appliances. To learn more, or to be an ambassador for a product, you need to actually experiment and cook with it!

So that is what we did.

(Chef Joe Castro with Jenn, me, Cynthia and Brenda.)

The majority of our time was spent in the culinary studio, which houses 5 separate state-of-the-art kitchens, each with:

1. GE Monogram Dual Fuel Professional Range
2. Advantium Oven
3. Induction Cooktop

The main kitchen in that area was for Chef Joe Castro and Chef Brian Logsdon.

These guys were so fun, and really brought a level of passion to our groups, especially with our last culinary experience, as we participated in an “Iron Chef” cook-off with a 50 minutes time frame.

Our group didn’t win, but we had a blast cooking together.

I also appreciated the organization behind the “cooking groups.” We didn’t move around from group to group, but instead cooked with the same “peeps” for each session; and thus really got to know one another.

The 3 appliances we learned about …

GE Monogram Dual Fuel Professional Range
This very impressive Gas Dual Fuel Pro Range was very easy to cook with and extremely user friendly with helpful LED lighting over each control knob. I loved the side-oven option that holds 9×13 pans (cooking for a smaller group) vs. the larger oven for cooking for a large crowd or a dinner party!

GE Monogram Advantium Oven
The speed cooking technology of this oven was so impressive because it combines halogen, ceramic, convection and microwave – cooks food in a fraction of the time (it determines the ideal cooking time for you) – and bakes, broils and roasts with oven quality results. It was SO easy to operate! The oven comes programmed with 175 recipes in the memory bank, which I love for last-minute entertaining.

GE Monogram Induction Cooktop
At first I was not a true believer of this appliance, because I just love cooking with gas. The magnetic field on this induction cooktop only heats the metal surface that it’s touching. We experimented with ice on the unused portion of the burner right next to a pot of boiling water. Wow! This is brilliant for kids who love to cook. I really liked the design and ability to clean it quickly.

In between the learning sessions we also made our own fun. That’s just what bloggers do. I’ve met some incredible people over the years of blogging, some of which I keep in frequent touch with. :)

One night we walked to find “Chess Pie” for a late-night snack.

We “soy-sauce tasted.” Yes, it’s sort of like wine tasting, except with soy sauce.

We visited Bourbon Barrel Foods where we sampled and sipped.

Truly, this was a very unique experience, one that I really enjoyed, as I learned more about the bourbon distilleries and “America’s only microbrewed soy sauce.” The process was fascinating.

We ended with a tour of Churchill Downs. So fun! I imagined myself sitting in those dark green chairs with my stunning hat on. Which, by the way, we did have fun in the store modeling our favorite finds.

When I got home, I was still full. I tweeted that I planned to eat lettuce for days – LOL. :)

So, after reading my post, I’d love to know which of the 3 products above would you be interested in learning more about or trying in your kitchen, and why?

And then for fun, have you ever “soy-sauce-tasted?”

Bloggers who I was honored to hang with:
Brenda from A Farm Girl’s Dabbles
Molly and Caitlin from Cooking with Caitlin
Coryanne from Housewife Bliss
Heather from Farm Girl Gourmet
Lisa of With Style and Grace
Brian of A Thought for Food
Maggy from Three Many Cooks
Irvin of Eat the Love
Teri and Jenny from Spoon Fork Bacon
Isabel at Family Foodie
Jenn at Foodess
Cynthia from The Daily Basics
Sarah from 20 Something Cupcakes
Debi at Debi Shawcross
Kris from Young Married Chic

GE paid for my entire trip, but all opinions are my own.

The winner to the UPrinting giveaway is Marlis Bennett from Creative Journeys!