While singing and dancing at the Hilton Garden Inn, Chef Jon Ashton made a presentation Sunday called “Making Mealtimes Matter.”
The presentation, sponsored by the News-Gazette, was part of the Dash Around the Table Tour. Ashton, contributing editor for Dash magazine, separated his presentation into two sections. The first half focused on cooking efficiently, and the second half was about having fun while cooking.
“A lot of family members both work, so (the event) is showing people how to make mealtimes matter,” Ashton said. “Being within a family, in the kitchen, everybody helps out, you talk about your day. And then also what we do is show people how to cut corners, how to get a meal on the table but with ingredients you can get from your local grocery store.”
The two-hour interactive cooking show left the audience laughing. Ashton showed people how to quickly cook “creamy butternut squash soup,” “cozy midweek sausage pasta,” grilled potatoes topped with shrimp and “Brennan’s Bananas Foster.”
“I love to cook with a smile,” he said. “The Dash Around the Table Tour is equal parts laughter and fun.”
Ashton, who is from Liverpool, England, has been cooking for more than 20 years. He said his grandmother affected his lifelong passion for cooking, and his grandmother told him to “share with others.”
“With Granny Ashton, not only did she teach me how to make her bread … but in her kitchen we learned so much about life,” he said. “We learned compassion, we learned forgiveness, we learned tolerance, and we learned the gift of giving to neighbors — because she baked for five neighbors — and those lessons have been carried with me.”
Ashton said he likes to use the tour to pass lessons down to younger generations.
“You reach an age — and I’m still young for the record — but you reach an age where you think, ‘It’s not just about me. It’s about the next generation. What can we do for them?’” Ashton said.
Some attendees said they felt they had learned a lot about cooking from Ashton. Carol Wisniewski said she plans to use what she learned from the presentation at home.
“I have gotten new ideas to use (in) my kitchen,” she said. “(I) learned how to cook healthier for my kids.”
One of Ashton’s cooking tips is to sing while cooking to reduce the feeling of pressure.
Roaa Al-Heeti, of World Harvest in Champaign, said she could use Ashton’s tips in her kitchen to make cooking easier and quicker.
“I enjoy some of his tidbits for cooking around the kitchen,” she said. “I think those will come in handy on a day-to-day basis.”
Kai can be reached at kaichen3@dailyillini.com.
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