THE JAMES BEARD EVENT – CHEFS & CHAMPAGNE NY honoring Emeril Lagasse
Don & I headed back East for a Family/GastroVenture.  So much good food so little time so we did the best we could.  We landed at JFK  late Friday night and headed out to West Hampton Beach where my sister, Jan, lives.  It is beautiful town with lots of great restaurants.  We had a delicious breakfast in town Saturday Morning, went to a farmers market,

Farmers Market in West Hampton, NY

Great pickle vendor with, mustard pickles, chili pickles, horesradish pickles, you name it he had it,but we were saving room, for the evening ahead. The culinary adventure of the year...or was it.

We had fun getting all "gussied" up, even though it was in the heat wave of the century.

for the Chef's & Champagne event at Wolffer Estate Vineyard, Sagaponack, NY

They were honoring Emeril Lagasse and I couldn’t wait to see him.  I met Emeril on his first book tour in Boston in 1993.  He lived in Massachusetts and I hosted a TV show and a radio show in the Boston Market.  I had the opportunity to cook on TV with Emeril a few times and had him on my radio show many times. He was a real treat to have as a guest, warm, friendly and so knowledgeable.   Don and I even spent hours with him at an annual Lisa Ekus Pig Roast in Western Mass.  He was so much fun, a sincere caring individual, we really liked him.  We moved to Arizona shortly after that and started our show here.  I have tried to book Emeril on our show for 15 years with no luck.  (Is it something I said????)  I thought it would be worth the ticket price to personally congratulate him and share my admiration for his success.  It has been fun watching his career rise. We arrived at the event no air conditioning with 500 people and 3 big fans, that people were gathering around for a moment of relief, it was brutal.  I finally found Emeril’s table and  I waited for a lull in the crowd, I was the only one at his table at this point, no distractions,  he handed me a shrimp dish and I reintroduced myself and pointed over to Don.  I felt like I must have been speaking Martian, because he did not respond at all, no kidding, I mean a blank stare. I paused and then began gushing with my sincere congratulations on his rise to stardom and nothing again. (Crickets chirping…. No” thank you”, no nod, nothing.  It was surreal.  I was floored at his lack of graciousness whether he remembered me or not.  I was a fan congratulating him.  I paid a fortune to come honor him and not even a nod!!!  After my anger subsided, I began to notice that I thought  there would be many Food Network Celebrities there to support him with this honor & support this fundraiser for education in the Culinary World and there were no Food Network Celebs to be seen.  Not only did Martha Stewart his past employer not bother to enter the tent (We heard she came,got out of the car, had a photo shoot and left ) Can’t blame her it was “Hot as a habernero”.   I guess the other celebs had other obligations.  We were told that they did not come, because they did not want to steal the limelight!!!  Maybe, but I think not!   My mood turned because I was thrilled with the wonderful contrast in personalities, charm and warmth of some of the other extremely high profile chefs.  The first was James Beard Award winner Chef Michel Richard of the famed Citron Restaurant in Washington DC.  He and his wife, business partner Mark Bucher and his wife made meatball grinders,  they could not have been friendlier along with   :

James Beard Award Winner Chef Daniel Boulud made a grilled lamb ribs with Sherry-Honey Gastrique and Minted Yogurt Sauce. What a warm and wonderful man.

James Beard Award Winner Marcus Samuelsson was so upbeat and fun, the heat was not going to get him, even when everyone was trying to get a piece of him. He made a chilled corn soup with marinated bass and tomatillo cilantro puree. YUM!

There were some inspiring dishes, here is a bowl of black truffles that were served with grilled sea scallops with herbed new potato salad truffle foam and the shaved truffle on top by Roberto Deiaco from Cappesante Gratinate . My favorite was Elizabeth Karmel, author of Soaked, Slathered and Sauced, one of my favorite bbq books and favorite guest on our show. What a great gal she is, I introduced myself and she was as sweet as could be. I loved her Texas tenderloin with Whiteshoepeg corn pudding. It was amazing!

I love inspiration and this smoked brisket chili was served in a marrow bone with a piece of pastry on the bottom to seal it. What a great idea by the Chef John Dohety from Certified Angus Beef .

This was another item that got my juices going. It was Pastry Chef Derek Poirier's Normandy Carmelized apple-butter cake with valrhona caramelia Ice cream with a squeeze of calvados that you inject yourself. It was fun and inspiring.

I was inspired by this great idea, a fig cake with mixed nuts to serve with a cheese platter. It was part of a great display by Forever Cheese. Fabulous cheeses and a great opportunity to display them for us and get great exposure. (Click on the photo to order)


Eye candy is important, and I loved the lemon meringue pie with disco blueberries by Pastry Chef Zac Young from Flex Mussels in NYC. I can't believe I didn't realize he was on Top Chef Desserts!!! I loved him then... and I love him even more now!!! The fun part was the edible glitter on the blueberries. My sister insisted I try this dish and to my surprise it was passion fruit, I love passion fruit. I went to talk to Zac and sure enough, he had changed it to passion fruit after the sign had been made. It was fun watching people rave about how much they love lemon when it was passion fruit. I guess "FOODIES CAN BE FOOLED". Good one Zac, I loved it. He will be making his own edible glitter soon.

All in all the event was uneventful.  No live music.  I paid full boat, VIP tickets, and found that the extra fee bought us nothing special, there was a roped area so we could sit.  It was a relief to sit, but might not have been worth the almost broken ankle as I fell in a hole in the grass in the roped area and then the servers tripped and dropped a tray of champagne glasses on me, refreshing but broken glass is not fun.  If you were to go to one of these events, bring your own fan, and don’t go for the VIP tickets.  We were so hot and full we could not bear staying for the full event. VIP were invited to stay for what looked like a dinner afterwards, who could eat more.  It was a great event for the vendors, these restaurants got great visibility, the exposure to all of the foodies who might try their restaurants in NY.  We received our goodie bags, another VIP perk, which was loaded with promotional junk that you get at the fancy food show, not worth taking back to AZ with us,  I think the Dairy Bags the dairy council brings to us as give aways has more useful things in it.  We left early and don’t know what we missed, but were happy to get into an air conditioned car to get home, a major disappointment. It makes the local events here in Arizona shine, we do have some great food events that were 1/4 the price with delicious food.  24 hours in NY and we were stuffed, beat, hot as heck and a bit disappointed.  Still more to come.