The Cobb Galleria wants everyone to know that convention center food doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, that’s exactly what Chef Nick Walker, who’s been heading up the convention center kitchen at the Cobb Galleria told us all when we joined him to sample some of the menu offerings available. I’m not going to write a lot here, I’ll just let the pictures and descriptions do the work. If you’ve got a holiday event coming up at the Cobb Galleria Centre, consider yourself very lucky.

I love being invited “behind the scenes.” Our tables set up inside the kitchen, we were lucky to watch the finishing touches put on the menu items. We started out with an Amuse Bouche of Green Tomato Pie with Goat Cheese. Not exactly what you’d expect from the convention center, right? Pictured above is a first course of Smoked Scallop Crudo with ham, chili pepper and grilled peach. Clearly, we were in for a winning evening.

Next up, we sampled a Carrot Soup with grilled cheese. What’s so neat about these behind the scenes Chef’s Table is that we see the neat contraptions that they use to create the dishes, like a sifter that was used with out soup. A third course was fried Quail with Buttermilk Pancake, Sorghum Vinaigrette, Apple and Frisee (pictured at the top of this post).

Let’s be honest. When it comes to Catfish, it doesn’t come to mind when you think about fine dining, right? But look what Chef Nick did with it? He paired with Pork Belly (who doesn’t love that?), creamed corn plus a roasted red pepper Harissa. Oh and those Okra Crisps? They weren’t just a pretty garnish. I gobbled them up! Chef Walker really likes vegetables as you can see below:

By the time dessert came around, I was quite full, but did manage a couple nibbles and it was outstanding as well. In case you didn’t see all the food porn above, the plating of everything was quite beautiful too. Chef Walker seems to be somewhat of a perfectionist making sure the appearance is every bit as good as the food he puts out. Kind of amazing that the Cobb Galleria Centre is able to churn out this quality of food for large groups of people. This was definitely not like any convention center food I’ve ever had before.