Tunisian Olive Oil Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

Hello fellow foodies!  I am excited to share with you a wonderful experience that I had working as a chef/spokesperson for Tunisian Olive Oil at this year’s Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City.  Tunisia was the proud country sponsor of this magnificent “foodie” event and they really did a wonderful job.

This year’s Summer Fancy Food Show was a great place to see and taste many of the culinary delights of Tunisia, along with their superb olive oils.

I also had the distinct pleasure of working at the event with two very talented and highly-accredited Tunisian chefs, Rafik Tlatli (Maître cuisinier de Tunisie, Hôtel les Jasmins) and Mounir Le Baroque (Academie Nationale de Cuisine – Delegation Tunisie). The three of us hit it off immediately and there was never a dull moment.

Chefs: Franco Lania, Rafik Tlatli (middle) and Mounir Le Baroque

You can see a great example of the fun we had in the video below.  While introducing my Facebook followers to the small kitchen area of the Tunisian pavilion, a funny thing happened.  I was just about to talk about the cupcakes I was working on when chef Rafik unexpectedly walked in. He had no idea that I was filming in this tiny kitchen.  A big part of live video is going with the flow, isn’t it?  So, we kept the video going and things got a little WILD and pretty hilarious. Voilà, our Tunisian cross kitchen was born!

Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean.