Martin Yan at Bloomie's

Chef Candi hosted Chef Martin Yan at Bloomingdale's demo kitchen. Again, Angela had to work, so I went alone. And had a great time. Chef Yan, who has a restaurant (M.Y. China) under the dome at the Westfield Center, is a real showman and kept the crowd entertained for his two-hour presentation.

For the first hour, he prepared his ingredients. Vegetables first, then protein, so he didn't have to wash his knife and cutting board until he was finished. He cut everything into extremely thin slices, constantly reminding us "I can do this. You can't." In other words, don't try this at home!

Here he "relaxes" a chicken.

Madman With A Cleaver
Now I know where the 11th Doctor acquired his knife skills.

The crowd was large, so the tastes were small. But big enough that M.Y. China is now on our list.

   

Peking Duck with Scissored Noodles

The Longevity Noodle is one very long noodle, served on birthdays to ensure long life. So instead of serving it to the crowd, it was presented to the audience member with the nearest birthday. We also sang the Happy Birthday song to her.

Longevity Noodle

Then we ate our veggies. Chef Yan told us we need to eat more leafy greens.

Kung Pao veggies

Then Chef Tony and his apprentice, who is from China, demonstrated the ancient method of hand-stretching noodles. Starting with one piece of dough, they end up with thousands of noodles.

Chef Tony and his apprentice hand stretching noodles

Showing off the finished noodles. Notice that they didn't get any flour on their jackets!

Cooked noodles served to the observers

The last dish of the afternoon was a kung pao crab. Those of us with the sharpest elbows got to taste pieces of it.  It was delicious. It was great to taste food made by a famous chef! Is there anyone you admire in the culinary world? Have you ever travelled to find their food served at a restaurant?

Showing off the kung pao crab

Knife skills*

Martin Yan and friends!*

*These two photos courtesy of Candi Austin.