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Woman wins dinner prepared by TV chef
Wednesday, August 29, 2001 By Liz Austin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Lois and Edward Stefanides' 50th wedding anniversary came and went in April with little fanfare. Her mother was gravely ill and in the hospital, and Stefanides had neither the time, nor the energy, to celebrate.
But a lucky entry in a Giant Eagle contest won the Cheswick woman an anniversary party she and her husband will never forget.
The couple and their family members were treated to a five-course meal prepared by chef Tyler Florence, star of the television show, "Food 911," on the Food Network.
"With us losing our mom, we were depressed and we had had a bad year before she passed," Stefanides said. "This was something that our family needed to pull us out of the doldrums."
Sponsored by Giant Eagle, Crisco and Procter & Gamble, the contest was held in June and July and was open to shoppers in the more than 200 Giant Eagle stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Participants could fill out a form to enter the contest, but they also were entered automatically when they bought Crisco or Cascade products using a Giant Eagle Advantage Card.
The dinner was held Aug. 18 at the home of the Stefanides' son in East Liverpool, Ohio. Stefanides and Florence first shopped for ingredients at the Giant Eagle in Richland. Meeting them in East Liverpool for the meal were the couple's two children, Stefanides' sister and her two sons, four of their nine grandchildren, and a family friend.
As the star of "Food 911," Florence travels across the country solving viewers' culinary problems. He has been executive chef at several New York City restaurants, including Cibo and Cafeteria in Manhattan.
Despite his fame, Florence made her feel like the celebrity, Stefanides said.
"I felt like Cinderella," she said. "It was like a dream."
The meal began with chilled tomato soup with spicy crab. The salad was served with mission figs, blue cheese and frisee, a type of endive, and included pistachios and an orange balsamic vinegar dressing.
The main course of seared salmon was served with peas, shiitake mushrooms and basil. Dessert consisted of buttermilk sweet biscuits with peach rosemary jam.
Though she can cook "just about anything," Stefanides said, she learned a thing or two from the chef as she helped him prepare some of the meal.
"He showed me that if you put canola oil in the tomato soup, it makes things creamier and keeps everything from sticking together," she said.
By the end of the evening, Florence and his three assistants -- who even stayed to do the dishes -- seemed like family, Stefanides said.
"When we parted, I felt like I was losing four sons."
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