New York City Le Fooding Event: The Event

The Event

Michele and I arrived an hour early, at 4 pm, in order to take pictures and save some good seats for Manny Howard and his wife, Lisa. Manny is a writer for New York
Times, and Lisa is the producer of Billboard, in all of its iterations. As I walked around and took some photos, I noticed Andrea Petrini on the fringes of the super hot kitchen, talking to Blaine. He was dapper as usual, dressed in pink pants, yellow shirt, and Keds that looked to be decorated by Jackson Pollack. His signature flat black glasses perched firmly on his nose, and he seemed so at home, taking time to speak to everyone who came into his sphere of influence. He stayed for Blaine’s food, eating with the Slovenian chef Ana Cos, who had preceded Blaine and was a true standout of the event.The pop up kitchen was a little better than a home kitchen, set up with authentic walls and shelves, fridge, large island, and a stove. The 58 guests were seated at 3 tables, one of which was long and lit by a beautiful chandelier made from gallon jugs and lit by small strings of lights. To enhance the ambiance, the table was festooned with lots of candles, all of which added to the 90 degree heat. Blaine and team had black kerchiefs to wipe the sweat that was flowing freely. Veuve Cliquot and S. Pellegrino were two of the event sponsors, and everyone received a split of yellow label and lots of sparkling water at their table. Raquel had managed to train the Fooding staff to do things her way. Serve the ladies first, if someone leaves refold their napkin, take dirty dishes with nary a whisper, and the food needs to be delivered hot! Hot! Hot! Because the numbers increased from 40 to 58, due to the popularity of Blaine’s meal, service was super hard, but we on the receiving end noticed very little. The snacks of smoked sockeye, pink salmon roe, black cod on a potato chip, all came out without a hitch, though the gaps between them were a little longer than usual. After all, Blaine maxes out at 36 at the Willows Inn. The courses were familiar to me, but the flavors were good, and I could hear satisfying murmurs from nearby diners. A lot of them were from Europe, perhaps because of the 7 European chefs at the event. Even the ice cream dessert with green apple and licorice discs arrived still solid, a feat in the heat of the room.

Somewhere after the second course I realized that the meal was going to end, the boys would want to eat and celebrate, and it was Saturday night in New York City. I asked Manny if he had any ideas, and right away he and Lisa started tapping away at their blackberries. Andrew Carmellini, chef/owner of The Dutch, who had performed on Friday, was contacted. Just like that an 8 top in the bar of one of the hottest restaurants in the city was reserved for us. Nice to have friends. Finally Blaine’s dessert of ice cream and apple and licorice discs was served, amazingly still frozen, what with the 90 degree temperature in the room, and soon the team was scrubbing the counters and sweeping the floor. True to form, Blaine left the kitchen spotless and uncluttered, a fact noticed by many of the chefs who offered congratulations after the meal. We walked back to the hotel in the warm twilight, and changed for dinner.