HMSHost Channel Your Inner Chef Event

“Working with Paulette Wolf Events feels like you’re working with people who you’ve already known. It’s been so comfortable, there’s been a lot of trust, and a lot of expertise has been brought to the table.”

— Shayna Iglesias (Senior Marketing Manager, HMSHost)

OBJECTIVE

The Channel Your Inner Chef event was to create the first of its kind cooking competition hosted by HMSHost. Held at O’Hare’s International Airport, HMSHost wanted to showcase their corporate capabilities nationwide, allowing other airports to see what their company can do for them that is different and out of the box.

OVERVIEW

On March 31, 2015 we produced the very first Channel Your Inner Chef event. Five chef applicants competed for thirty minutes in a friendly culinary battle. The winner would receive 2 VIP tickets to the James Beard Award Dinner held in Chicago as well as their winning dish featured at Goose Island Pub Restaurant at the airport.

Producing an event of this magnitude at an airport presented some challenges, including supplying knives and other sharp objects to the contestants and allowing VIP guests into the event space without an airplane ticket; while still adhering to TSA regulations and rules. We worked closely with airport staff, security and HMSHost to ensure that this event was flawless but safe for all guests, travelers and staff.

Following the competition, we held an event on July 16, 2015 where we introduced the winning dish, a blackened jerk chicken with a sweet potato puree, black bean and corn salsa and mango barbeque sauce. This dish, presented by winner Nikkia Stone, was served at Goose Island Pub for the remainder of the month. The VIP event featured speeches from the new Chicago Airport Commissioner, Ginger S. Evans, Alderman Michael Zalewski and CEO of HMSHost, Steve Johnson. We also highlighted the two custom videos that were created for this event; a trailer announcing the competition and a sizzle reel of the actual competition.