Background:
The glitz. The glamour. The camera-stealing, Jennifer Lawrence red carpet antics. For any movie buff, this is the most exciting time of the year. Celebrities come out in droves looking their best on the red carpet. Movies from every genre vie for the most celebrated award in entertainment. The host brings out their very best jokes and presentations to make sure even the surliest audience member is enjoying themselves – whether they are at the show in person or watching from home.
For chef and entertaining expert Maureen Petrosky, this is also the best time to throw a party! With such a fun, yet glamorous feel, the awards show provides hosts with the perfect theme. She is available on Monday, February 24th for live interviews to share tips on how to throw the most award-winning party on the block!
MORE ABOUT MAUREEN PETROSKY
Maureen Petrosky is a professional chef, author and Lifestyle expert. Since 2001, Maureen has made regular television appearances as a food and wine expert conducting segments relating to hot topics in the culinary industry. Maureen has appeared numerous times on NBC's The TODAY Show, CNN, CNN Headline News, FOX News Channel, the Food Network , and the broadcast network affiliates across the country, representing her own projects as well as appearing as an on-air spokesperson for Better Homes and Gardens, and as a Contributing Editor for Bon Appétit magazine. Most recently Maureen has appeared as a judge for Food Network's Iron Chef America. Maureen has also been featured on numerous radio programs and is the featured Wine Expert for "A Chef's Table" on National Public Radio. Maureen has most recently completed her first solo lifestyle book, The Wine Club, A Month-by-Month Guide to Learning About Wine with Friends. The book includes her best recipes as well as wine and entertainment tips. She has contributed as a freelance writer covering food, wine, travel, and restaurant criticism for CNN Interactive, Bon Appétit, Wiesner Publications, vinesugar.com, vino.com, Newcomer Magazine, and The Wine Report. Currently, she has a regular wine column in NJ Life Magazine and most recently has been writing for Scripps Networks Inc.'s FoodNetwork.com and FineLiving.com.
GINGER MAUNEY - AUTHOR AND NAMIBIA TOURISM BOARD REPRESENTATIVE
With the destination recently ranked #6 on The New York Times’ “52 Places To Go in 2014” list, Namibia’s star is on the rise.
Taste of Namibia - culinary backgrounder
Namibia’s culinary fare is largely influenced by German and South African cuisine, and more recently by Angolan/Portuguese traditions. Built on beer, braaivleis (barbequed meat) and bakeries, Namibian cooking offers much to savor – even more so for adventurous travelling gourmands prepared to sample a wealth of traditional indigenous dishes and ingredients.
Traditionally a meat-eating nation, in recent times Namibia’s food industry has grown to support a number of products that would have been thought unlikely to succeed if considered twenty years ago. Namibia now produces a wide range of fruit and vegetables, seafood and sweet and savoury confectionary. In the past few decades, distances have become much shorter in Namibia and small communities bigger and less isolated. Nevertheless, Namibians still cling to the foods that have helped shape their identify, such as the dried and smoked meats that lasted long, hot seasons, wild fruits that provided important vitamins and jams and preserves that made the most of short periods of abundance.
ABOUT THE NAMIBIA TOURISM BOARD
With the mandate of promoting tourism both nationally and internationally, ensuring the quality of accommodations and other tourist facilities, and developing environmentally sustainable travel practices, the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) was formed by an act of Parliament in April, 2001. It brings together both the private and public sectors and is the only national body devoted entirely to implementing the national policy on tourism. The NTB’s domestic and international offices provide custom-tailored services to the members of the travel trade. www.namibiatourism.com.na