Cooking, like taking a pop quiz and defusing a bomb on national television, is often a source of stress. Disarm your hunger with today’s Groupon: for $20, you get two one-day wristbands to The Great American Cooking Expo at Arlington Park Racecourse (up to a $40 value). Choose between the following dates:
- Saturday, November 12 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Sunday, November 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
More than 140 epicurious exhibitors converge on The Great American Cooking Expo’s yearly convention for two days of culinary assembly, toting along plentiful samples of their best food, wine, beer, and spirits. Gourmand grub-slingers from Sartori Foods, The Olive Tap, and Garden Row Foods dispense bites of their flavorful wares from multitudinous booths while attendees mill about with samples from a stock of more than 200 wines. Live cooking demonstrations help chefs connect with rapt audiences, imparting recipes, techniques, and ways to safely fit an entire pizza into one’s mouth. Guests can hunt up a spiritual snifter from premium beverage producers such as Absolut Vodka, Proximo Spirits Tequila, and DonQ Rum, or decamp to one of two beer gardens with guests from 17 breweries for sudsy sample mugs from companies such as Guinness, Half Acre, and Sam Adams.
The Great American Cooking Expo
The Great American Cooking Expo presents "It's Just a Taste: Food and Wine Festival" brings together celebrity chefs, culinary trendsetters, and food and wine connoisseurs for two days of eating, drinking, and education. The event fills Arlington Park Racecourse’s 50,000 square feet with delicious aromas generated by more than 100 exhibitors, who alternate between demonstrating advanced techniques and providing tasty morsels and wine samples for the crowds. While professionals show off the methods that produce exceptional flavors, more than 25 premium beverage manufacturers offer up the perfect wines to pair. They provide more than 125 wines to sample, along with ample spirits and cordials.
The event’s organizers hope to provide more than fleeting culinary satisfaction. They also organize stations to help generate menu ideas, teach specific recipes, or inspire visitors to find the perfect gift for a culinary-inclined friend, whether it’s a set of new pots or a kidnapped celebrity chef.