Event held at Westin Harbour Castle Hotel at 1 Harbour Square in Toronto

This past Thursday, I was invited by Jojoinstameets to an exclusive preview of the fall and holiday collections from Pampered Chef Canada.

According to Wikipedia, Pampered Chef Canada is:

“a multinational multi-level marketing (MLM) company that offers a line of kitchen tools, food products, and cookbooks for preparing food in the home. …  The company is headquartered in Addison, Illinois and operates in three countries: United States, Germany, and Canada.”

The following entry is a recap blog post about the event from my perspective.  (I am not associated with this MLM company at all.)

The event was hosted in the “Executive Suite 3444” at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto.  It was slated for 6 to 8 p.m.  I arrived early on a beautiful summer day at 5:45 p.m.- ish to the prestigious hotel and tried to find the Executive Suite.  It was a big beautiful hotel with two towers.  The last time that I had stepped foot here at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel was several years ago when I dined in for a Summerlicious lunch with a friend at their restaurant called Toula.

Approaching the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto

Photo right before the stairs to the entrance

I went to the South Tower elevators and tried to find level “34” on it, but the highest numbered level on it was “33”.  Thus, I figured it might be the other North Tower instead.  I walked to the other end and did find level “34” in the other tower but when I went up the elevators, it turned out that it was just a floor of hotel rooms and not what I was looking for.  Thus, I consulted the help of the front desk.  At first, the gentleman wasn’t sure of where this Executive Suite 3444 was either, but another staff member was able to point me back to the direction of the South Towers at which he said that I should go to the penthouse “PH” level instead.  Ah, it made sense.  I did see the “PH” next to the “34” number in the elevator.

At this time, I also bumped into Crystal and we went upstairs to the event together.

Once we arrived at the “PH” floor, there was a lady who was holding a sign that showed the Pampered Chef event to guide visitors to the room and bringing it down the elevators to put in the lobby.  In my opinion, if that sign was put down at the lobby at least 15 minutes before guests started to arrive, it would have made more sense and been so helpful.  I wouldn’t have had to walk all over the hotel lobby to find the room.  XD  I suggest better planning on their part if they want their guests to find the room effortlessly in the future.  I must have spent ten minutes wandering the hotel hobby and elevators before I arrived at the right place.

Lobby of the hotel

Finally got to the right floor!

This sign was in front of the room. A lady brought a similar sign into the elevator to put into the lobby — should have done that earlier!

The Executive Suite on the 34th level was gorgeous and so chic.  There was a large dining room and living room area for entertaining and mingling with lots of sofa area and modern furniture.  Immediately, I could see the harbourfront from their large windows too.

Gorgeous view from the 34th floor of Westin Harbour Castle Hotel

At ten minutes to six, Joanna and the staff were still setting up for the event.  All of the cookware and kitchen gadgets were already on display around the room and they were putting out the food items that Chef Maddy Goldberg (instagram.com/cook.eat.sleep.repeat) had prepared.

I took this time to photograph the items in the room, have a drink, and scope out what the event’s feature items were.  I also mingled with some familiar food instagrammers.

Pampered Chef setup on the grill

Refreshments

Champagne glass against the view

Some of the instagrammers were photographing these beautiful teal-coloured kitchen wear

They had a silicone chocolate spoons tray

Cute spoons logo

Products and catalogues around the room for photographing

After the setup was finally complete and many other food instagrammers had arrived, we were welcome to begin photographing the food and products from Pampered Chef.  There were various lines of products including kid stuff, dishware, baking, grilling, “everyday solutions”, knives, and more.  All of the food that was prepared were served in the products.  It was a very nice setup of food and dishware and cookware.  It was almost like stepping into a modern magazine where everything looked picture perfect and highly photogenic.

Chef Maddy’s food displayed on the Pampered Chef products

Chef Tim spoke a bit about their product lines after Joanna welcomed us to the event.

Speaking about the event

Chef Tim speaking

We were then welcome to join them in the adjoining (bed)room where their newest fall and holiday collection was presented.  We were given this exclusive preview on the Thursday evening but asked to not share about it until Saturday morning since that was when they would be revealing it to the rest of their colleagues and community members.  We were invited into the room three at a time so that Tim could explain the products to us.  There were a lot of neat bakeware items, a champagne stopper, and knife that were shown to us.

New fall products for Pampered Chef

Bakeware items, a champagne stopper, and knife

Some of the products with description and price

After this, we were finally invited to sample and try the food items that Chef Maddy had prepared.

We were served:

• Roasted Red Pepper Bureka mini pastry (in a large entertaining platter);

Roasted Red Pepper Bureka mini pastry

• One-Bite Taco Cups ( in a large round stone);

One-Bite Taco Cups

This was so good

• Grilled Vegetable Salad, balsamic reduction, side of Feta (in a shallow baker);

Grilled Vegetable Salad
-balsamic reduction, side of Feta

• Foccacia (in a large bar pan);

Foccacia

• Cornbread with Corn and Jalapeno (in a stoneware rectangular baker);

Cornbread with Corn and Jalapeno

• Cheesecake Bites, braised pineapple compote, caramel (in a Rockcrock grill stone); and

Cheesecake Bites
-braised pineapple compote, caramel

• Emoji Sticker Cookies.

Emoji Sticker Cookies

Food from the first round of eating

I really enjoyed the one-bite taco cups.  This was so simple but tasted so tasty.  The foccacia was many people’s favourites.  It was really soft and fluffy and so savory!  I love it when bread is already baked savory so you don’t need to add anything to it for flavour.  The Roasted Red Pepper Bureka was really enjoyable too.  I liked how the pastry was so flaky.  The roasted red pepper wasn’t very detectable though.  The Grilled Vegetable Salad was fresh and many people enjoyed this, I believe.  The Cornbread with Corn and Jalapeno looked so good!  I thought it tasted a little dry, however.  The Cheesecake Bites were so pretty especially when paired with some flowers and green vine on the plate.  However, I thought this was too sweet for my taste even though it was tasty.  The Emoji Sticker Cookies were adorable!  I think that the cookie batter could have used more colour to bring out the expressions of the emojis better for photographing.  I didn’t have any of the cookies though because I’m not a fan of sugar cookies.

We also had a cheese and cured meat platter.  The cheeses were so delicious and fresh!  I loved the soft cheeses especially. :9

Cheese and cured meats platter

There was also a bowl of peaches with walnuts.  The peaches were extremely fresh, sweet, and juicy!  So many people loved this!  There was also melted chocolate and marshmallows and pretzel sticks for dipping.

Peaches and walnuts

Champagne, pop, and sparkling water with limes and lemons were served as refreshments.

Drinks on the 34th floor

Bubbly champagne

Before we left for the night, we were thanked for our time by filling out a short form to select one category of a product line that they had with our home address so that they could send a gift of Pampered Chef products to our home.  A lot of people pursued their catalogue to browse for preferred items.

We were also gifted a goodie bag.  We were given a catalogue, a recipe booklet for one-pot meals, a tasty chocolate spoon and chocolates, and also some emoji and holiday cookie cutters.  The cookie cutters were adorable!

DIY goodie bag

Pampered Chef catalogue

The cookie cutters I chose

Thank you very much Pampered Chef for hosting this information session for instagrammers with an interest in cooking at home.  It was a good experience to see and browse the products that they have in their product lines.  Thank you Jojoinstameets for the invitation.

Panorama of the event

Contact info

FTC Disclaimer:  Although Jojoinstameets invited me to a Pampered Chef Canada information session with a complimentary tasting that featured their products, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the companies.

(A final note:  I am glad that it was after attending the event that I found out that Pampered Chef is actually a MLM company.  I have a very bad personal experience with a MLM/network marketing company so I would not want to voluntarily take part in any other MLM “parties” or events had I known about it beforehand.  If you are curious about what I experienced, you can read the detailed post here.)