Just Back from Aspen...

In the world of foodiedom, there is no event more anticipated, glamorous and prestigious than the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, now in its 28^th year.  More than 5,000 hungry and thirsty enthusiasts braved the thin air at 8,104 feet of altitude to swarm the mountain resort town for four indulgent days to commune with their favorite celebrity chefs, sommeliers and mixologists, many of whom are New York City fixtures. 

The welcome reception at the understatedly swanky St. Regis Hotel featured a cavalcade of Gotham biggies, including Food & Wine’s Dana Cowin, chefs Mario Batali (Babbo), David Chang (Momofuku), Masaharu Morimoto (above, Morimoto New York), Thomas Keller (Per Se), Jacques Pépin, restaurateurs Drew Nieporent (Nobu) and Joe Bastianich (Del Posto), Top Chef top judge Tom Colicchio (Craft), Top Chef doyenne Gail Simmons, Top Chef Season One winner Harold Dieterle (Perilla), Top Chef Season Two finalist Sam Talbot (below, with Simmons), and others.

The backbone of the festival was the Grand Tasting Pavilion, where 1,021 different wines could be sampled, from California, France, Germany, Chile, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Greece, South Africa, Canada, Portugal and Australia. For those who preferred more structured samplings, there were ample seminars, including a rather dazzling one titled “Two Decades of Dom Pérignon.” The bubbly sipping, with vintages back to 1988, began at an ungodly 10 a.m., but no one seemed fazed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Joshua Wesson (Best Cellars) paired hot dogs with everyday vinos like Prosecco and Grüner Veltliner.  The festival also entered more spirituous territory with a seminar on “American Whiskey” that celebrated America’s micro-distillers, including New York State’s Ralph Erenzo of Tuthilltown Spirits.  Bourbon, rye, wheat whiskey and legal moonshine all exhibited their own unique charms.

On the culinary side, attendees dutifully queued up in the blazing sun for the chance to sit in on perfectly choreographed cooking demos hosted by celebrity chefs. David Chang spilled the beans on his mom’s Korean marinade, that he uses in his many restaurants. He also demystified the sous-vide process.  While optimally done with a $1,000 immersion circulator, it can be jury-rigged at home by employing a couple of pots, a thermometer and a very watchful eye. 

Thomas Keller (left, with Tom Colicchio) tipped his toque to the world’s best preserves and demonstrated how to make cured lemons and a sweet onion tapenade.  Mario Batali enthralled his fans with Northern Italian takes on seafood and pasta. Clams casino, anyone? Morimoto illustrated Japanese knife techniques with breathtaking precision. Tom Colicchio teamed up with Gail Simmons to showcase two lamb dishes, one representing an ambitious restaurant style, one a homey style. Jacques Pépin and his daughter Claudine teased each other mercilessly and showed how a dab or two of caviar can make even the most mundane dish, like a humble omelette, totally transcendent.

When the sun set, many chefs, like Batali (left, with Dana Cowin), threw enormous parties at their rented chalets. In fact, Colicchio and Bastianich stopped by Mario’s with acoustic guitars in tow and strummed and sang some good old Simon & Garfunkel. And after all the parties, anyone who was anyone usually wound up at Jimmy's, an unpretentious bar and restaurant, to down some shots of tequila, eat the best crabcake outside of Maryland and bask in Jimmy Yeager's legendary hospitality.

The festival wrapped up with the Food & Wine Best New Chefs Dinner at the Aspen Meadows Resort’s Doerr-Hoiser Building.  In this gorgeous, museum setting, ten rising cooks from across the U.S. prepared their signature dishes, with NY homegirl Missy Robbins (A Voce) making New Yorkers proud with her Strachiatella Cheese with House-Cured Lamb Pancetta and Grilled Pickled Ramps. 

Everyone left Aspen stuffed and slightly hung-over, but infinitely more enlightened about food, wine and booze, and eager for more education next June. —MICHAEL ANSTENDIG

East End Goes Eco!

On Saturday night, environmentally conscious sophisticates found themselves among the stables and vineyards of the famously eco-friendly Wölffer Vineyard Estate in Sagaponack, where they dined alongside other members of the glitterati at the the 2010 Green Gala, benefitting the Group for the East End. This barking good time was characterized by balmy Hamptons breezes, willowy beauties and truly divine cuisine. In their efforts to protect and restore eastern Long Island while encouraging an environmentally conservative ethic, the Group for the East End recruited the most prolific local chefs to craft dishes from the farm-fresh foods that have come to define dining in the Hamptons.

While indulging in the culinary creations of the likes of James Carpenter, Tom Schaudel, Michael Dean Ross, and Brian Fishman, guests mingled with the big names responsible for the success of the event. Acclaimed fashion designer Nicole Miller, heiress Amanda Hearst, Campion and Tatiana Platt, Summer Rayne Oakes and the elegant Kick Kennedy rounded out the star-studded roster of attendees.

Cocktails and a silent auction set the initial tone of the evening, followed by a decadent three-course meal paired with the vineyard’s own signature wines. The music of Henry Haid and The Only in America band brought guests to their feet as the dusk bled into starry night. Food, friends, and a common concern for the delicate ecosystems that make earth the liveliest planet of them all made the Ecofabulous Green Gala an event to be remembered. The Group for the East End knows that for all of its idyllic luxury, the Hamptons are an important home for an entire host of life, regardless of the size of their estate. --WENDY DIAMOND

For more pix from the party, click here.

Back Room Dealings

Lower East Side speakeasy The Back Room was the aptly chosen locale for an intense cocktail competition last evening, sponsored by New Amsterdam Gin. Gathering eight of the industry's best-known bloggers and web entrepreneurs (including New York Insider's own Thomas Farley), New Amsterdam challenged the contestants to create a gin cocktail with a New York backstory and ingredients to match--all in under ten minutes. Presided by master mixologist Alex Ott, the night's quick proceedings resulted in a varied and delicious group of cocktails, with ingredients from cayenne pepper to elderflower.

The entries (and recipes) follow ...

Green Market Smash (WINNING ENTRY)

1 ½ oz New Amsterdam Gin

½ oz liquified honey

½ oz elderflower liquer

6-8 basil leaves

1 oz orange juice

½ oz cranberry juice

Created by Selena Ricks, The Dizzy Fizz

The GINtrification

2 ½ oz New Amsterdam Gin

2 slices cucumber

2 wedges lemon

½ barspoon liquified honey

½ oz Elderflower liquer

2 dashes celery bitters

2 dashes rose water

1 oz orange juice

Created by Carmen Operetta, Libation Diaries

The Flight Delay

1 ½ oz New Amsterdam Gin

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz orange juice

¾ oz cherry juice

Splash of Crème de Violette

Created by Christa Vagnozzi, Martini Talk

Sweet Scoundrel

New Amsterdam Gin

Liquified honey

Cinnamon

Elderflower liquer

Orange juice

Splash of soda water

Created by Christopher Koulouris, Scallywag & Vagabond

Tropical Skyline

New Amsterdam Gin

Pineapple Juice

Lime juice

Elderflower liquer

Ground ginger

Lime garnish

Created by Yvonne Lee, Socially Superlative

Spicy Elixir

New Amsterdam Gin

Pineapple juice

Cayenne pepper

Ground nutmeg

Grape juice

Tonic water

Liquified honey

Created by Laura Lee, Socially Superlative

 “238”

1 ½ oz New Amsterdam Gin

¾ oz white cranberry juice

¾ oz seltzer

¾ tsp liquified honey

Pinch lavender sugar

Created by Erin Howard, YAY! DIY

The Pick-Up Artist

2 oz New Amsterdam Gin

3 oz orange juice

Dash cayenne pepper

Dash ground ginger

Created by Thomas Farley, New York Insider TV

We highly recommend you try these at home!

For photos of the cocktail creations and the party and judging in progress, click here.

Live from New York, It's Time for Makeup!

For lovers of beauty-products, the Makeup Show (at the Metropolitan Pavilion, on West 18th Street) was the place to be yesterday and Sunday. Now in its fifth season, the event brought together more than 70 makeup companies, from Dermalogica to Smashbox. Booths overflowed with savvy shoppers eager to take advantage of the hefty discounts, which were up to 40-percent off retail. 

Along with the fab make-up offers, the event featured a wealth of seminars, including a first-time event with Louie Zakarian, head of the makeup department at NBC's Saturday Night Live since 1997. Outlining his career trajectory, Zakarian explained how without much professional makeup training (but a lot of practice in his basement at home), he decided to send his résumé to NBC. Miraculously, he landed an interview, during which time he learned that to get a job on a network show he would need to be a member of The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Thanks to the generosity of his interviewer, the upstart landed a batch of assignments doing makeup for Donahue as a means of building the credentials he needed for union membership.

When he finally got into AFTRA, he landed a gig as a freelance makeup artist on SNL, in 1994. He must have made quite an impression, because they kept calling him back. Ultimately, he became a permanent staff member.

A Queens native, where he still lives with his wife and children, Zakarian excels in both prosthetic and fashion makeup. In a show of his skill at the Makeup Show, in the span of about 30 minutes, he transformed a young, brown-haired man into Vice President Joe Biden (a stellar Louie creation, as seen below).

Among his proudest SNL contributions  include changing vibrant Demi Moore into a senior citizen; morphing Abby Elliot into Angelina Jolie; and turning Amy Poehler into "the Great Adventure Guy."

As for his favorite celebrity hosts, he cites comedian Jack Black..."he is exactly the same off-camera as he is on" and fake news guru Jon Stewart...who came up with the hilarious skit idea of genetically mutated boy bands--a concept that gave Zakarian endless creative possibilities.

Even if you're not on television, you still need great makeup, so Louie offered New York Insider these exclusive suggestions for make-up that will hold up during a NYC night on the town (and into the morning after, too). Here are some of his picks:

Lipstick: MAC Lucid
Foundation: Make Up For Ever
Powder: Make Up For Ever HD Powder
Mascara: Maybelline Great Lash
Make-up Brushes: A Design
Eye Shadow: Stila

SNL tapes from mid-September to mid-May, so what is Zakarian planning to do during the break? Along with sleeping as much as possible, he is developing the Green Goblin make-up for the new Spiderman musical.

Kudos to Louie for creating such memorable characters as part of his self described "dream job." He's proven that with enough NY moxie, dreams do come true...all you need is the right place, right time, and a kindly HR person. 

The Makeup Show will return to New York next year (dates TBA) and will be in Los Angeles on February 26th and 27th, 2011. –-WENDY McSWAIN

Raise Your Glasses!

The stoic lions guarding the New York Public Library main branch, on Fifth Avenue, never flinched. And yet, streaming past them up the stairs and into the great marble hall of learning were 2,500 (perhaps more) revelers with one thing on their minds: a good, stiff drink. With liquor companies from Belvedere to Maker's Mark to Hendrick's Gin setting up shop in the grand library's three stories (and its lower level, too, where Ketel One, Don Julio, et al set up a re-creation of the city's famed and long-gone Stork Club), New Yorkers had come out to party. And despite being given wrist-bands that urged them to behave (wink, wink), the evening's attendees knew that the order of the night was to sample as many different mixologist-created cocktails as possible, while dancing and mingling the night away.

This was the Classic's second gala outing, a sequel to a smaller but still ambitious event last fall, also held in the Library. Organizers nonetheless promised bigger and better and in that, they did not disappoint, as stilt-walkers, burlesque performers, magicians and other creatures of the night roamed the halls. Although food was in perilously scant supply, the event's 9 p.m. start time was apparently the cue that event organizers expected ticket-holders to have dinner before coming to the gala. Also making matters a bit uncomfortable was the toasty temperature in the Library, no doubt exacerbated by the presence of so many well-lubricated party-goers in a building that tends to attract patrons who are considerably more sedate.

How the library's cleaning crew got the space ready for opening time the following day we don't know, but suffice it to say that we're sure they did, and for that we are duly impressed.

For more pix from the party, click here.

Smile, You're on SNL!

Fans of the late-night comedy show, which is celebrating its 35th season this year, have had a lot to enjoy of late. This past weekend was Betty White's universally applauded guest host appearance (prompted by a grassroots Facebook campaign, which succeeded in making her the show's oldest host ever). Then last night, an exhibit of the star portraits used during commercial cut-aways was unveiled at the John Varvatos store on the Bowery.

Taken by photographer Mary Ellen Matthews, who has been with the show for a decade, the images capture more than just likenesses....they ooze whimsy, almost always in hyper-saturated colors. Tina Fey as a Robert Palmer back-up girl. Will Ferrell peeking through a thicket of daisies. Alec Baldwin channeling Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. These photos are no mere snapshots. They are gorgeous pop art, a fact made clear when viewed close-up and in a frame rather than as pixels on a TV set.

And thus, a delightful selection of these images is now on view at John Varvatos, the former home of CBGB. Among the SNL SNL stars who turned up to salute Matthews at last night's opening included Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen.

The exhibit runs through August 3, so you'll have plenty of time to catch it before the next season of SNL starts. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the season finale this Saturday, which will star guest host Alec Baldwin. For more pix from the party, click here.

Off to the Races!

The whirlwind of the social season has us thrashing about from one social gathering to the next, and in this maelstrom of activity, have you wondered whether you have whacked your head or whether every party you attend is playing out the same script?  Well, fret no more and mark your calendar for the 3rd Annual Kentucky Derby Celebration at 11 Madison Park. Once you read on, you’ll understand why you’ll want to buy your tickets the second the event is announced...in 2011!

Yesterday marked the second time Esquire magazine and Union Square Hospitality Group joined forces to create the Derby Day party in New York, a festivity that in a very short time has become an extravaganza.  In fact, days before the event New Yorkers were jockeying for a way to get their hands on tickets, just as if they'd been trying for the highly-coveted wreath of roses bestowed upon the Derby winner.
 
The frenzy was understandable. With USHG founder, Danny Meyer, and Esquire editor-in-chief, David Granger, involved, the event could not be more masterfully run.

The doors to 11 Madison Park’s sublime art-deco dining room opened at 3:00 pm to usher in the most creative, audacious, and fabulous fashion parade seen there since Big and Carrie lunched there in Season 2 of Sex & the City. Everyone from David Diehl of the NY Giants, Chef Wylie Dufresne of WD-50, cocktail great David Wondrich, Don Lee, from Momofuku, and Jenny Slate of Saturday Night Live, dressed to impress. And when I say impress, I don’t mean the trite dress code we see starlets don at Churchill Downs. I am talking more Ascot, England, racing-day-spectacular! Men were bedecked in their own creations and interpretations of what the traditional seersucker suit meant to them, and women opted for fanciful headdresses by Leah C. Millinery that featured feathers and bold colors rather than the meek watercolor palette might have expected.
 
Indeed, many aspects of the afternoon involved unexpected twists. Who'd have ever thought that Chef Daniel Humm’s fried chicken on French toast could be the most delectable incarnation to ever cross your mouth?  Or that the most lavish raw bar you'd ever see would be at a Derby party?  And what of the libations, you ask? Thanks to Maker’s Mark, not only did we have mint juleps, but also cocktails that rarely come out to help us play: Old Kentuckys (bourbon, mint, and Champagne) and Seelbachs (bourbon, bitters, and Champagne). Yet, the winner of the afternoon was Joaquin Simo’s Double Barrel Julep...with round peach flavors that kept all of us coming back for more. (And, if you are now longing for one, head to Death & Co., where it is part of their spring menu!)
 
To add to the buzz of the liquid spirits flowing through the room, Nat Sherman organized a cigar lounge outside, where one could select from a myriad selection of cigars while a blue-grass band played long past the 7 pm closing time.  (Courtesy of the Nat Sherman folks and as a tribute to the amazing time had by all, the lounge remained packed until 9 pm!) ELIZABETH DA TRINDADE ASHER
 

It's Your Lucky Day

The inaugural Lucky Rice festival, a celebration of Asian cuisine in New York City, threw a Grand Feast last night at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, hosted by Lisa Ling (left). The cuisine represented the dishes of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Japan, and the sweet and savory delectations were joined by (surprisingly good) wine from China, sake and tea. Teams from kitchens both Asian (Morimoto, Kittichai) and not (Daniel, Le Bernardin) and more came together in what was billed as the crowning evening of a festival that will continue with a special restaurant week, kicking off on Monday and continuing through May 9.

For a complete list of participating eateries, click here.

And for more PARTY PICS, click here.

Type-ing Lessons

Relationship expert Andrea Syrtash launched her new book, He's Just Not Your Type (And That's a Good Thing) at Butter, in NoHo, last night. The compelling guide, which details Syrtash's philosophy that women should "date the person not the potential," encourages ladies seeking Mr. Right to instead give their non-type a chance.

Syrtash, who is known to viewers as a regular guest on the TV talk-show circuit on topics of dating and relationships, created a show for NBC and is a regular contributor to oprah.com. Her engaging and approachable new book is a must-read for any woman who never thought she could date against type.

For pictures of last night's party, check out our Facebook album. And if you were at the party and we caught you on camera, be sure to tag your photo!

The Green Machine

New York State today named Kaity Tsui the title of "Greenest New Yorker." The commendation comes in recognition of Tsui's work on behalf of MillionTreesNYC as well as her indefatiguable efforts in support of the Green City Challenge; One Earth Network; Green Drinks NYC; Just Food; New York Cares; the New York City Office of Recycling Outreach and Education; Trees New York; and Teens Turning Green. She's also in the process of getting certified as a Master Composter and a Citizen Pruner. (Not sure what's involved in these certifications, but it sounds messy!)

Judges for the competition included chef Mario Batali (whose restaurant Del Posto hosted today's award presentation); Josh Dorfman, "The Lazy Environmentalist"; Peter Facinelli, of Twilight fame; interior designer Robert Wilson; and architect Morris Adjmi.

Tsui wins a three-day/two-night hotel package at her choice of one of ten Empire State destinations that are currently being promoted as eco-friendly must-see spots by the folks who brought you the I (Heart) NY campaign.