NRA 2017

VacMaster is hot, hot, hot on the trade show circuit this year! TeamVac started the year with appearances in Portland OR, Milwaukee WI, and Missoula MT. As popular as those were, they are merely warm-ups for this weekend. The 2017 National Restaurant Show in Chicago is by all accounts, massive. Put together for the $700 billion restaurant industry, it attracts more than 45,000 buyers from 110 countries and all 50 states for four days of meeting, seeing, tasting, testing, and so much more.

This year will be my 4th visit to NRA as an exhibitor but my journey started way back in the mid-'80s attending first as a student and few short years later as a restauranteur. NRA was a yearly ritual for me; the show is intimidating at best for the attendee’s and exhausting as an exhibitor.

As chef/owner for just shy of three decades my goals for the show were for inspiration, first and foremost. Looking for exhibitors offering new and improved equipment (none of which I could afford!) and getting a feel for what breaking trends were emerging. It was also an opportunity to meet with a few national suppliers face to face and discuss any issues or comments I might have.

As an independent restaurateur, the real education came at dinner. Never being able to decide which restaurant to try as Chicago's dining scene with over 8,190 restaurants (as of last February) makes, the “second city” one of the largest and most diverse dining destinations on the planet. I decided early on it was ridiculous to pick just one restaurant each night. No, I would map out about ten different eateries that offered items I was intent on seeing and tasting.

I wouldn’t make reservations, rather map out my “gottaGo” list and hit the first one literally minutes after the show close each night. I would explain to the harried hosts that were “standing room only busy” why I was there. To make the situation tolerable, I would elect to sit at the bar and order whatever it was that they were known for. It didn’t matter if I started with a dessert or a cocktail or anything really, I would just dive in. As I waited for my food I would check out the tableware, bathrooms, overall ambiance, eat, take a few photos, (with a big ‘ole camera thank you very mucho!) grab a menu and off to the next one. On a really good night I could cross off maybe seven from my gottaGo” list, but it didn’t matter really I just needed to immerse myself in the Chicago dining scene and continually move my restaurant and culinary education forward with whatever I gleaned from that trip.

This year at booth #1044 in the south hall of McCormick Place, VacMaster is showcasing for the first time literally everything we offer from our extensive product lines and cooking food. Yes, TeamVac will be preparing sous vide food for the first time in our company’s history. Armed with our SV1’s purring away and our line of commercial vacuum machines sealing bags at a frenzied pace we will be searing off hundreds of flatiron steaks seasoned simply with our new line of custom rubs and spice blends, crazy eh?

With this year's show underway, I wonder, will I find such unique items as “hand sawn ice cubes” cut or rather “sawn” to order at the tragically hip restaurant in Portland we saw earlier in the year? Or will I find something as shockingly memorable as the “live baby eel and saki shooter” I gulped down in Chicago’s old town district a decade or so ago?

Well, it all remains to be seen, but be advised, as much fun (and it is) that style of eating can be, it is exhausting. Walking or working the show floor for eight hours and hitting all the hot spots with drinks is a culinary sport and not to be taken lightly!