Taste of Home Expo and Cooking Show

LIMA — Thursday night marked the 11th annual Taste of Home Expo and Cooking Show at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center. Lines of guests snaked around the corners as they waited for massages from Apollo Career Center students, free food from Rays and Save-A-Lot, local arts and crafts for sale, and local business showcases.

Attendee Debbie Schmidt had only one wish.

“I wish I had gotten here earlier,” she said.

This was her first expo so she was unprepared for the diversity of samples, businesses, and lines.

“I’m just kind of taking everything in,” she said. “There’s so much going on. It’s so much more than what I had expected.”

While guests receive bags of free food and other goodies, it is also beneficial for businesses to attend and set up booths.

Jeff Tracy, owner of Tracy’s Appliances on Elida Road, has worked the expo for “as long as there has been an Expo,” he said jokingly. While he doesn’t see any direct profit from being at the Expo, meeting the customers, he said, is invaluable.

“It’s important to be out in the public,” he said, “talking to people, hearing the feedback, learning what they’re looking for and more importantly what they need.”

Tracy’s Appliances, along with Rays Supermarkets and Apollo Career Center, was a major sponsor of the event, which was presented by The Lima News.

During the cooking show a full auditorium read along with recipes from the latest Taste of Cooking magazine as culinary specialist Cheryl Cohen cracked eggs and jokes. In honor of the holidays, Cohen showed the audience some festive favorites and new recipes, from baked apple French toast to mushroom crab melts.

The show is Beverly Schaadt’s favorite part of the evening.

“It’s so nice to see different demonstrations and learn what you can do with ingredients in your own kitchen,” the Lima native said.

Schaadt travels to a few Taste of Home Cooking Shows every year and for her, “they never get old, there’s always new techniques to learn and new products to look at.”