Checkmate! (My real life fairytale!): October 2008

(How fitting that this is my 104th post-I made it a special one!)

Today was the big day! I went in to NYC with Ben's cousin Mike and his wife Ashleigh for the Top Chef co-sponsored Taste of the Five Boroughs event at Grand Central Station. The proceeds were to benefit City Harvet www.cityharvest.org

I won the tickets last week and was very excited to attend this event. I do think my favorite part was the "Meet and Greet" we were able to attend prior to the event. It was really exciting to meet some of the past Top Chef contestants, as well as some of the contestants that will be on the show for Season 5 which starts on Bravo on Wed, Nov 12 at 10pm! I am really excited for the new season. Season 4 will be a hard act to follow with a few of my favorite Chefs but I am sure Top Chef will deliver!

I only took my point and shoot camera for this event and so many of the photos are not great but you get the idea and that is all I was looking for...capturing memories with my camera! It was definately easier to carry around then my good one and its the price I pay for convience, but I am happy overall!

I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever tried as many different types of food at once in my life, and probably won't ever again. I do think I am feeling it now though! LOL

So, the day started out pretty early for a day off! Mike and Ashleigh arrived around and 8am and then shortly after we were on our way. We took the train into NYC and then oce there sorted out getting from Penn Station to Grand Central which really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We got to Grand Central a little after 10am and basically waited around for a while to find out where we needed to go for the Meet and Greet.

Here are some photos from the set up while we waited...

Notice Harold, Season 1 winner standing around!

Empty area...later you will see it packed!

Me and Mike

Ashleigh and Mike

The "Meet and Greet" was at this restaurant in Grand Central Station

The Meet and Greet started at 11am and they gave us our wristbands which were equivilent to our tickets for the tasting portion that started at noon. This turned out to be extra handy because where most people turned in their tickets for the wristband, we didn't do that so we did end up with a souvenior for our scrapbooks!

We were the first ones in to the Meet and Greet and right away we were met by Danny who is a contestant for Season 5. Here he is with me (all photos are unedited since I didn't have time to do anything yet so forgive the noise and such!)
Season 5 Contestant Danny

Danny was really cool and very excited to meet people and be a part of things. We really liked him and hope that he is on the show for a while. He was friendly and talked to us right away, introducing himself and having an actual conversation with us, not just a "Hey, thanks" photo, move on.
I also saw Miguel from Season 1

He was cool and I had remembered him from season 1 so that was pretty cool too.
Season 5 Contestant Ariane

Ariane is from NJ and was also there early at the Meet and Greet and came up to us to say hello and make conversation. She was really nice and spent a good few minutes talking to us, comparing where in NJ we were all from and stuff like that. She did warn me she was "the crier" on the show but I am looking forward to seeing her too!

We did get other photos of the upcoming contestants but didn't really make a connection or have a conversation with any of the others. You can read about them all individually here:
http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/bios/index.php
Ashleigh and I

A quick shot of some of the upcoming contestants with Miguel from Season 1

Season 4...Spike!!!

Spike was pretty cool too. We talked with him for a few minutes and he told us about the restaurant he opened in DC, Good Stuff Eatery, which is a hamburger and milkshake joint. I said he should get one of those in NJ and he said he was actually in the process of looking into that with some people from this area! So, fingers crossed he can bring one to NJ, and near me!
Here is an air shot of the Meet and Greet

Half way through the Meet and Greet, we had met all the people who were there so far that I wanted to meet and we decided to go check out the food they had for us. We expected it would be a bunch of fancy stuff we had never had but we were willing to try whatever was out there.

Now, let me stop here for a second before I get into our food tasting. You should know that I don't try many new foods easily. I know what I like and I usually have to work up to trying something and it is NEVER any of these fancy shmancy things we encountered at this event. But, I had already decided that this was an opportunity I might never have again to try all kinds of foods and it didn't cost me anything so if I didn't like them, I wouldn't feel bad about it. So, we filled our plates, found a small table and some seats, filled our glasses with a beverage and sat down to try these foods we could hardly identify on our own!

Some of the food...

My plate of tastings...

Close up of some of the food still on my plate...

I am not sure if I will get this all right, but this is what we tried based on the "menu" that was placed with the food.
-On the left in what looks like a shot glass is the Maine Lobster & Chestnut Shooter described as chanterelle cognac, sweet corn. My take: I liked this. The drink part not as much but the small bit of lobster that was soaking in it that I ate first I really did enjoy and I had never had lobster before.
-The cheese puff looking thing was a Gootessa Cheddar Puff described as chicken salad, celeriac & honey crisp apple remoulade, walnut. My take: I had this last as my "chaser" figuring it was a safe bet but I was a bit disappointed.
-The square shaped item next to the puff was a Smoked Salmon & Crepe Napoleon described as creme fraiche & American sturgeon. My take: Not really to my tastes, but I don't normally eat any sort of fish. It did have a smokey flavor that I normally like but the combination didn't do it for me. Maybe if it had been chicken...
-The three pieces on a stick next to the sqaure was a Caramelized Hubbard Squash described as port poached Bartlett pears, Maytage blue. My take: Didn't like it and was not easy to finish. But I did!
-The item on the white spoon was Long Hard Duck Roulade described as duck proscuitto & pomegranate syrup. My take: This was the second one I tried and I really had to gear myself up for it because it looked scary and I was really nervous but I have to say I actually liked this and it surprised me.
-The last item on the silver spoon was the Dauphine Violet Figs described as west farm goat cheese, 100 year balsamico. My take: Let's just say this one almost didn't make it down. The texture was really hard for me to wrap myself around and it was definately my least favorite of them all.

Sitting at our table ready to try our food

Here I am about to try the Lobster shooter thing...

Mike trying the three things on a stick...

Ashleigh trying the fig...

Before I tried the square thing...

After...(or during really!)

After we finished our snacks and washed it all down well, we went back to the mingling area to see who else was out there now. First person we saw that I wanted to go say hello to and get a photo with was Andrew from Season 4...

He was really cool too and I was happy to get to meet him. He was definately one of the ones I was hoping would be around that day.
Here is another photo op with a few more contestants from the upcoming season:

We only spoke briefly to say hello and good luck. From left to right of me, Richard, Jamie and Patrick.

We also saw our guy Danny in his Top Chef jacket now and chatting with a few more of the upcoming contestants so we got another photo (I don't think I have had my photo taken so much in a long time!!)

I didn't really get to talk to these guys but if I have them correctly based on the Bravo website, from left to right (not includ me!) is Danny, Hosea, Jeff and Gene.

I then got to meet Richard from Season 4 and Lee Anne from Season 1 (who I think now works for the show!)

Also there was Andrew Cohen who does a lot of stuff for Bravo including hosting all the reunion shows and has a blog on Bravo about all relavent activities. I recognized him so went up to say hello and got a photo!

The only other past Top Chef contestants I saw there were Lisa and Manuel from Season 4. I didn't have any desire to try and talk to Lisa. I didn't care for her on Top Chef last season and when I first saw her arrive and standing around at the meet and greet she didn't appear any more friendly or happy so I didn't bother. Shortly after all those photos, I did see Tom Colicchio, the head judge, arrive but as he walked into the main area and passed me he didn't look too friendly either or eager to interact so I didn't bother to try and get a photo with him. I did take a pic of him being interviewed though...and I am sure he is not as unfriendly as he seemed in the brief passing, he was probably just overly busy and not really paying attention to things!

After all that our hour was up and they were going to be ushering in new people so they shuffled us along to the main event which was the actual Taste of 5 Boroughs restaurant food tastings. They also had demonstrations of different things set up opposite of the food tasting area. Here is a pic of the demo area:

In the tasting area there were 20 different restaurants. Here is a copy of the menu they gave us that told us what every table had to try!

I am not going to go through each of the items on the menu but I will comment about a few of them. I did try all but three items and that was pretty impressive. I did try quite a few things that I would have never tried if they were not at this event.

As we started out around the room, one of the first stops was at the table for Perilla, which is season 1's winner, Harold's restaurant. They were offering "taylor bay scallops with spicy pickled green papaya mignonette". At first I was very hesitant because I don't eat fish and I said so in front of Harold and so after a little push from him (and his saying it was ok to spit it out if I don't I like it and making sure I wasn't avoiding it because of an allergy!) I took my chances and I actually really liked it! I still don't know that I am ready to order anything like it for a meal but it was definately one of the more favorable things I tried. After I tried his food, I asked him for a photo of course and he was happy to!

A few tables down, we saw Dale from season 4 working at the Buddakan table. He posed for a quick photo in between all the people gearing to try their lemongrass bubble tea with kaffir lime salt.

Next to Dale's table was 24 Prince where I saw Nikki from Season 4 and Manuel. They were happy to pose for a pic for us!

Kobe Club was featuring a kobe club wagyu tartare on sourdough ficelle crostini that was another surprise to my tastebuds that I did enjoy!

Here is a shot of the once empty hall now packed with people!

Micheal Jordan's Steakhouse offered up a tasty dessert option with the mini glazed brownie. I know what you are thinking...a steakhouse offered brownie's instead of steak? Apparently they were all limited in their options due to not being able to use anything with an open flame in their food preperation on site so they went with brownie, and it was a hit.

Not too far from them was Dinosaur Bar-B-Que offering a mini pulled pork sandwich which surprised me in being quite yummy. I usually stay clear of items with any sort of BBQ sauce because I am not a fan but this had a different flavor and I wished I had not been so full so I could enjoy the whole thing!

A little bit after that we got to the Water's Edge Restaurant which was offering up a salmon with Chef James spicy sauce on a pringle chip. As much as I don't like fish I thought it sounded interesting and ultimately decided to take my chances despite Mike's advice that I don't based on what had learned I liked and didn't like, but I did it anyway. And I probably shouldn't have! I should have learned from my earlier salmon tasting at the meet and greet but it is not a flavor or a texture that my palet enjoyed. The woman noticed my expression and knew I was hesitant to begin with so she actually gave me a special envelope as a "thank you" that included a copy of the full menu, a chocolate and a $25 off $100 gift certificate for their restaurant so I could try some of their other offerings. This was not something she was handing out to everyone so I thought it was very thoughtful although I don't know if we will get to use it or not.

At this point it was time to snag some more water bottles to wash down the food and then we saw Brad Blanks from the radio station, WPLJ, I won the tickets from. I went up to him to say hello and he was also with another DJ I listen to frequently, Race Taylor and they were both gracious to stop for a photo amid all the food at their fingertips!

After that, our hour in the tasting area was almost up but we had saved the best for last. The River Cafe was offering a pumpkin & butterscotch ice cream sundae which was delicious! And that I would order on my own!

At this point they were shuffling people out of the area. We were able to get one photo of all three of us infront of one of the Top Chef banners and then they stripped us of our wrist bands as we exited and we were done with the food!

The only thing left at this point was watching a few of the demonstrations. I was interested in seeing the ones between 1pm and 1:30pm because they featured past Top Chef contestants that I wanted to see. First up was Harold talking about seasonal flavors.

Then Richard talking about wines.

And the best for last, Andrew and Spike with a knife skills demonstration!

It was an interesting knife show, including the fact that Andrew cut his knuckle while they were messing around and so first he went over to the "sink" to rinse it off and realized it was just a prop, so then he asked for a band-aid and the people who were there to help didn't seem to believe him at first, thinking it was part of a "bit" or something until he showed them his bleeding knuckle! He turned it around after getting patched up and told us what not to do:)

At this point my camera battery had just run out and I was thankful it made it through the day with me and I was able to get as much as I wanted. Sorry for the photo overload but you should know me by now to know what to expect!!

One thing I did learn from tasting all those different foods was that when things are really made with different flavors that are meant to be tasted, if they are done right and those tastes are appealing to your personal tastebuds it is a lot easier to identify the different flavors then just average cooking I do! It surprised me that I could pull out certain flavors and identify what made something pleasurable or unsatisfying to me.

All in all it was a blast and I was really happy to get the experience. After dinner with Ben and Mike and Ashleigh last night I was not feeling so hot and I think it was a combination of all the different foods I tried that my system was just not ready for! But all is well now and after spending all night putting this together it is time for bed. I will do my other updates soon too!

And don't forget to check out Top Chef on Wed Nov 12 at 10pm on Bravo!!!