Samsung Flex Duo with the Voltaggio Brothers

This is a really exciting post for me to write.  It involves this quote I’ve been trying to live up to for the longest time: “Rather than recount his life as he has lived it, he must live his life as he will recount it.” (Gide)  But that’s so far removed from the food thing, and I’ve been accused of sharing too much personal stuff on my site… well too bad!  Hahahaha! 

In any case, I was recently invited to the Samsung showroom in NJ to watch a demonstration of their latest kitchen gadget: the Samsung Flex Duo.  Guys, I didn’t even know Samsung made kitchen appliances, just TVs and stuff like that – but they have a whole line of cool appliances that made me wish desperately that I had a bigger kitchen.  The Flex Duo is really awesome – it’s a regular sized oven, but there’s a partition you can slip into it to make it effectively two separate oven areas, each controllable by its own thermostat/gauge and everything.  For holidays, it’s perfect to make two different dishes without mixing aromas/tastes.  Pretty cool, right? 

Even cooler, Samsung tapped the Voltaggio brothers to demonstrate the oven for us.  Y’all know I don’t watch Top Chef or similar cooking reality shows, so I was like yeah okay cool.  And then someone explained they were on Top Chef the same season, and won first and second place, which means they were pitted against each other… awww! 

Yeah then I saw them and I was like, wow, they’re hot. 

After a demonstration of a few dishes, we headed into the other room to enjoy the goodies we’d watched being prepped.  First up was cake with basil ice cream, because I avoided the first table and headed to the one with no line.  Dessert first?  Why not?  Moist apple cake with a very herbaceous ice cream… interesting. 

The main event, though, was the turkey.  I was blown away by how juicy and moist this bird was.  I mean, I make a pretty mean turkey (and if you’ve read any of my Thanksgiving posts, you know that) – it’s pretty moist – but this one was just practically dripped if you squeezed it.  I didn’t need a knife to cut into it, just the side of my fork… it was insane.  I was so impressed, in fact, that I had to go up to Chef Voltaggio and ask what his secret was.  First he said brining, but I just looked at him and said very patiently, “I brine my turkey; it does not come out THAT juicy.”  (I realize that most food professionals don’t know the level of skill of the person asking, when I come from a “I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t going to try to attempt it” standpoint – because plenty of people ask but have no intention of DOING… so I try to hold my patience in check when I’m talked to like I’m a moron.)  Then he admitted that this turkey was sous vide’d and I just laughed and said “Okay then forget it” – because that’s something I won’t do.  Buy a machine that’s a couple hundred dollars (even if it meant the juiciest turkey I’ve ever had in my entire life).

Side dish of roasted root vegetables and ‘cardamom coffee soil’ – this was probably when I began to realize how fussy their cooking is.  Very tasty parsnips! 

Olive brioche with a goat milk butter brushed on top.  The bread was tender, while the olives added a nice salty note. 

Pork loin that was also super tender and delicious.

For more information on the Samsung Flex Duo, click here.  If I could redo my whole kitchen… you can be sure there would be a lot of Samsung appliances in there! 

So now for the hilarious personal anecdote I mentioned in the very beginning.  If you don’t want to know more about my personal life, please, feel free to skip this part! 

At the end of the event, we were all given copies of Volt Ink (affiliate link), the Voltaggios’ new cookbook.  (By the way, I flipped through it and it is completely fussy, involving dehydrators, blowtorches, sous vide machines, and more gadgets than I could ever fit in my kitchen and still have room to move.  Sure, lots of recipes sound divine, but there’s just way too much work involved for it to be a book I’ll turn to in the near future…)  Since they were both in attendance, we were encouraged to have our books signed by them. 

Earlier in the night, I’d Tweeted about how cute they are, and someone responded that Bryan is married while Michael is not.  I joked to the people around me that I should hit on Michael and give him my number, and then – without any alcohol, by the way – I decided that this sounded like an excellent idea.  So… why not?  What is the worst that could happen?  I’m not sure any guy would just rip up a girl’s number and throw it to the ground, stomp on it and laugh at her… right?  Wait… Hahaha, seriously, though, at the worst, he takes my number and never calls me.  No harm in trying then – this is not going to hurt my self-esteem.  He lives in a different city and he’s famous, for cryin’ out loud… at the worst, it makes for a great story. 

Voila. 

I waited on line to have my copy of the book signed.  When it was my turn, I handed over my book along with one of my business cards and said “So you know how to spell my name.”  As they signed my book, I chatted about the sous vide turkey, and how I thought that was way too fussy.  Bryan seemed a little adamant about the sous vide machine “helping me save space” in a tiny NYC apartment, while Michael just watched with amusement.  I forget how the conversation turned to whipping cream, but it did, and I shared how SWSNBN can’t whip cream to save her life.  At this point, Michael had my business card on the table in front of him, though we were chatting and he looked amused while Bryan looked a bit put out that I didn’t have a Kitchen Aid mixer.  I described how I’d even blogged a recipe for SWSNBN, and then in a rush of energy, I said, “You should read the recipe on my site. I’m sure you guys know how to whip cream, but…” and Michael looked even more amused as he said “Well, everyone does it differently,” so I agreed, said “You should definitely read it, then, and call me to tell me what you think.  My number is on my card,” I still can’t believe I said that. 

Michael looked at me straight in the face, said, “I’ll do that,” and then put the card in his breast pocket, folded the flap over the pocket and proceeded to button it. 

So I said goodbye and walked away, beaming.  It isn’t about whether he calls or not (at this writing, it’s been about 3 weeks, though by the time this post goes up, it’ll have been well over a month), because at the end of the day, there are a crapton of reasons for him not to call that have nothing to do with how awesome I am or am not.  It’s simply about me actually going for it full force, and now having a really nifty story to tell when people bring up Top Chef since I don’t watch the show. 

That’s enough for me 😉 though I wouldn’t be mad if he did call… hahahaha! 

Thank you to Samsung for throwing this fabulous event and hosting me… I had a blast!  Opinions expressed herein are mine alone, and I received no monetary compensation to write about this event, positively or negatively.