Hello friends!
I’m back to share more details about my trip to Arizona this week with Thermador! They flew me and 11 other bloggers out to Scottsdale for a fun foodie unveiling of their new cooking range. We even got to try it out ourselves!
(Loved the rhinestone aprons they gave us, hehe!)
I’ll start from the beginning 😉 Before breakfast on Wednesday, I started my day with a 5 mile run — it was National Running Day, after all! 😉 I had gorgeous scenery and the weather was nice and cool, too. Plus, I ran into Brooke and Maggy at the half way mark and had a great time finishing my run with them! Gotta love being jetlagged and able to wake up at 5 a.m. to work out, no problem, ha.
Bright and early at 7:45 a.m., we met up with Thermador to start the day! We headed over to their gallery and training facility to get a tour and have breakfast.
Their gallery was cool — it’s basically a bunch of rooms with really pretty kitchens! Breakfast was divine, too. I was SO impressed with all the food on this trip! Lots of variety and a lot of healthy options, too.
I filled my plate with a little of almost everything! A whole grain vegan blueberry muffin, a really tasty egg and potato casserole (I think I tasted truffle oil in it!), fresh mango, kiwi, and other fruit, an amazing quinoa and fresh berry salad, and a piece of sausage for good measure 😉
I also tried some of their hot whole grains — topped with slivered almonds, berries, and coconut milk, YUM!
I think my favorite was the black quinoa and fresh berry salad — yum! I’m pretty sure I have the recipe on a little flash drive Thermador gave us this week, so I’ll have to share it if you guys are interested 🙂
After breakfast and a short presentation all about Thermador (a sort of past to present presentation — very interesting to see how they have evolved over the years!), it was time for the unveiling of their new 48 inch Pro Grand Steam Range, which officially (I think) comes out in August!
Hello, beautiful:
I know. I totally want one. Unfortunately I think a $14,000 range is a liiiiiittle out of my student budget, lol 😉 It was still really cool to see the latest technology, though! It was hilarious when they took the cover off it — flash bulbs started going like crazy!
They gave us a little tour of some of the features — on the right of the range is a regular oven, on the top left is a steam oven (SO cool), and the bottom left is a warming drawer for plates and food — LOVE this feature! That would come in very handy for those of us that aren’t great at having all our dishes finish at the same time 😉
The other thing that we all loved was the soft close doors — when you let go of the doors on the ovens, instead of slamming shut, they stop an inch or two early and slowly, soundlessly close.
Thermador also features star shaped burners instead of round ones — apparently this is much better in terms of larger surface area for the flame and more even cooking in smaller pans! Neat.
The range features six burners, including the option for extra hot and extra low settings. The extra low setting is so delicate that you can literally put a paper plate of chocolate chips on the burner and it won’t burn! How cool is that?!
Apparently the secret to the extra low setting is that the burner frequently flips on and off — they explained it to us with the analogy of holding your hand over a lighter. If you keep the flame lit and your hand over the lighter, it will burn you. But if you keep turning the flame on and off, no burning!
After the grand unveiling, we were able to test out the range ourselves by helping make lunch 🙂
I was put in charge of grilling beef skewers on the top of one of the smaller ranges — like the large, new range, it has interchangeable griddle and grill attachments. Cool!
(Above with Sara)
I don’t think I’d ever grilled red meat before Wednesday. Matt, are you proud? 🙂
I am a grilling goddess, no big deal.
Everyone was very busy in the kitchen — we had a serious feast by the time it was ready to eat!
Whole grain fruit bread:
Some really amazing duck topped with peach chutney:
Seared tuna:
Asian cilantro salad:
Sesame seed encrusted tofu:
Roasted turkey:
A black quinoa and soy bean salad:
And of course my beef skewers, served with peanut sauce!
As usual, I had a little taste of everything 🙂
So delicious! The soybean and quinoa salad, my beef skewers (obvi), and the duck were probably my favorites. And the bread! It tasted like something I would make, healthy but still yummy.
After lunch (and some whole grain cookies for dessert) we had a fun whole grains presentation from Chef Brad!
(That window city view behind him is actually a wall painting! Doesn’t it look real?!)
He told us about some of his favorite grains (amaranth, quinoa, oat groats (whole, unprocessed oats), barley, teff, whole corn, etc.) and the best ways to use them. I loved this presentation because, as you guys know, I’m a huge champion of whole grains. It was great to hear from someone so passionate about spreading whole grain love to the masses! He recommends making up a big batch of grains (any kind!) and storing them in the fridge for up to a week — that way you’ll have them on hand, already cooked, to toss into salads, pasta sauce, anywhere you want to sneak some whole grains in!
It was especially fun to learn about amaranth since I’ve never cooked with it before! Did you know you can pop it like popcorn?
Amaranth gone wild!! He said to use a larger pan or pot when doing this at home so you don’t end up with amaranth everywhere 😉
Amaranth before popping (left) and after popping (right):
Very cool! It smelled like popcorn and tasted good, too. Chef Brad said to toss it into cookie and muffin recipes for a fun texture and a little extra fiber 🙂
I can’t believe how quickly my Arizona trip went! As always, the best part of a trip like this is the people — I had a blast catching up with blogger friends and meeting some new ones, too! I was also really impressed by Thermador and all their staff — everyone was really nice and very passionate about their product in a good way.
I’ll leave you with some fun blogger photo shoot pictures we took at the hotel (we were put up at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa) before dinner on Wednesday night. 🙂
Top row from left: Robyn, Brooke, Kate, Sara, Sandy
Bottom row from left: Tessa, Maria, Amanda, me!, Irvin
With the awesome Brooke of Cheeky Kitchen:
With Irvin, Tessa, and Maria (who is expecting in September… so exciting!):
With Sarah, the genius behind Tastespotting, and my girl Amanda from Kevin and Amanda:
Such a fun trip! Thanks again, Thermador, for hosting us. Totally worth having to make up the couple days worth of my dietetic internship that I missed this week in late July 🙂
After I finish up with class today Matt and I are driving up to coastal Virginia for a wedding this weekend! Busy as always 🙂 It should be a gorgeous weekend for it, weather-wise! Have a great day and happy Friday!
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Disclaimer: Thermador covered all my hotel, flight, and food-related expenses for this trip, but as always, anything you read on here is my opinion and mine only 🙂
