One of you asked what's involved in directing a food stage.....
for me it was:
one weekend a year, usually the end of Jan. 5-7 mainstage chef talents would be on stage in front of up to 3000 paying people cooking/entertaining...there was always a headliner and typically Fr. Dom was a regular for over 5 years. What I would do would be to help line up the "talent", design the stage, access all the equipment neccessary to do 11, 45 minute with 15 break between each demos. They would usually be 3-5 dishes....or if you play with Thomas Keller, one dish is more than enough. I'd line up staff, buy and prep to spec ingredients.....if the sponsor is Missouri Ag, then I'd co-ordinate farm products with demos < not so easy>. Build a commando kitchen behind a curtain, develop timing breakdowns for each dish, with pull outs/sub in...always having a beauty plate for photos. Pulling in great staff. Then making sure that whoever was on stage had whatever they needed, in no time flat. Dishwashing was a three bustub deal. We were lucky if the door was shut as Jan in STL is very cold. I'd walk the chefs through the scenerio, help them select recipes, then beg for copies of said recipes /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif
Some of the people that I've worked with are in television, several have written books, most have name recognition to draw paying crowds.
When you are used to demoing and directing chefs to demo @ a farmer's market in the middle of the street with no electricity, running water, etc....then it's not that big of a stretch managing and directing a Food Stage.