Relish Cooking Show and Expo heats up Thursday

COEUR d'ALENE - Last chance to pop your holiday kitchen with big time pizzazz.

Think European dishes - exotic yet convenient - ready to be learned and served in time for Christmas.

In this case the pupil is anyone interested in picking up tips in the kitchen, and the teacher is television celebrity Chef Jon Ashton, who will whip up culinary masterpieces in front of a live audience Thursday during the Relish Cooking Show and Expo at the Greyhound Park and Event Center.

"If you like to eat, drink, shop and have a good time this event is for you," said Jennifer Alexander, sales manager at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

Cooking lessons should be easy to come by.

Ashton, mega-cook, author and 'Today Show' regular, likes to chop, mince and saute with audience participation. The event will be filmed, too.

Come to snack on food, enjoy a cocktail, or get a jump on your Christmas shopping, as 50 vendors, from food to attire, will set up at the show.

"We are pulling out all the stops for your show," Brian Morris, of Relish Magazine, promised. It's the last of 2010, so we're blowing the doors down."

Doors open at 4:30 p.m., but Ashton will light up his kitchen at 7 p.m.

Those who buy V.I.P. tickets for $45 can mingle with Ashton from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. before the studio lights come on. The in-house chef for Relish magazine as well as the T.V. show will sign autographs of his cook books then, too.

The show is presented by Great Floors, along with Granite Transformations and Super 1 Foods.