The Zac Brown Band played the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA this past Saturday and Steve and I and our wives had a chance to catch the show.  The night started out at 5:00 with an Eat and Greet with the Zac Brown Band.  The Band gives a selected few of their fans a chance to eat some great food and hang with the band for about an hour before their show.  If you have not had a chance to do this I highly recommend doing it.

The food prepared by Chef Rusty Hamlin is always phenomenal and cooked right there on site.  Chef Rusty no run of the mill cook,  hails from  Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He  earned an Associates Degree in Culinary Arts, as well as Gourmet Chef and Nutrition degrees from the Culinary Arts Institute of Louisiana. This evenings feast prepared by Chef Rusty included  Zac’ signature recipe Pocket Knife Coleslaw, Cheddar Smashed Potatoes, Lobster Potato Salad, the best green beans I have tasted that included slices of Red and Yellow peppers and Beef and Pork tenderloin with sauces and rubs that Zac created. We also got to try Jimmy Buffet’s new Land Shark Lager from his margaritaville Brewing Company.  The guys from the band walk around from table to table and chatting with the fans while everyone enjoys their meal. The one thing I noticed is how polite these guys are, they waited for everyone else to get their food before they went up to get theirs. I had a chance to sit down with Chef Rusty Hamlin and we talked about how crazy his day was in regards to getting things ready for the evenings meal.  He left for the boston produce market around 10:00 am to get the supplies for dinner and did not get back until 2:30pm. Chef Rusty likes to shop at the local markets of where the band is performing, he likes to use locally grown produce and prefers to help in his own little way the local economy. For instance in Boston he found this tiny little cheese shop hidden in the market, where he picked up the aged cheeses for tonight’s mashed potatoes. Then they ran out of propane and had to scurry around for some more propane, it’s actually a miracle the meal was ready in time.  Chef Rusty is currently working on a cookbook and I am eagerly waiting for it’s publication and will let you folks know as soon as I hear of it’s release.  Around 6:20 Zac Brown and the guys announced they were going to get ready for the show and bid us all a great night and a great night it was.  This post was going to included the review of the Zac Brown Band concert but I thought it was getting kind of long. After all the Eat and Greet does deserve it’s own post you can check out the review of the concert here at Zac Brown Band Concert Review.