Top Chef Tour


Richard Blais

 

Saturday May 7, the Top Chef Tour stopped in Denver. This was our 2nd time seeing the tour, and we were thrilled that Richard Blais, our favorite and winner of Season 8 All-Stars, was back in the Mile High City.

The set up was different than the previous year. Instead of having the chefs prepare a dish for us, the two chefs would have a “quickfire”, and we would get to taste both dishes. His competitor was Vail, CO’s Kelly Liken (finalist in Season 7).


Kelly Liken

I knew ahead of time they would be preparing fish, as it was voted on in a poll on Facebook. Yeah, you know I don’t eat fish right? But this finicky foodie made herself take a bite out of both salmon dishes.

Okay, here’s my foodie fail, I didn’t take pictures of the food! I was too busy taking pictures of Richard.

Richard produced a salmon & mustard sauce, while Kelly went the non-cooking route of raw salmon on a cabbage & orange salad. The judges they had sit in, chose Kelly’s dish. Perhaps because they were sandwiched in between the two cooking stations, which were adding to the heat of the sunny Saturday.

Afterwards, I got in line to get a picture with the chefs. This years tour was more widely attended, so I didn’t get the chance to talk to the chefs (pout). I’ll just have to pretend that Richard totally remembered talking to me last year.

Playing At The Park

Play structures at Red-Tailed Hawk Park

I discovered a new park in my area, just a short drive from our house. In a few years, we’ll all be able to ride our bikes there, it’s that close.

 

Red-tailed Hawk Park (located on Aurora Pkwy, between Arapahoe & Gartrell) offers
* two play structures
* two swing sets (one for small kiddos, one for big kids)
* a rock to conquor
* covered picnic tables, uncovered picnic tables & grills
* a bathroom
* A small spray park

The rock to be conquered

A view of the tables, grills & bathroom

The park is accessible by bike, which connects with the Piney Creek Trail. There are two small parking lots, one near the spray park, and one near the main playground. But there isn’t much of a walk between them.

We went to play today around 10:30am, and the summer sun made the slides a little hot. The spray park doesn’t turn the water on until 11am. Factor that in when you are making plans to go play.