Hello there! Greetings from the whirlwind. Did you miss me last week? I was busy hosting my last two tablehopper Vinho Verde events: one in New York (my first event in NYC!) and then I flew home to San Francisco on Thursday to throw the second one with Feastly on Saturday. Take a look at the photo albums: this one is New York’s Malaysian feast with chef Mei Chau of Aux Epices at New York Vintners, and here’s the San Francisco event with Butterfly chef Rob Lam, who cooked a Vietnamese dinner in Feastly’s beautiful loft.
Both events sold out, and were so damn delicious that I would love to be able to offer them again to you! The wine pairings were spot-on for both—so even if you didn’t get to attend, the next time you’re going out for a Vietnamese or Malaysian dinner, you know what to drink! Thank you to all the chefs and somms (Eugenio Jardim and Betsy Ross) and everyone else who helped me pull off these events. Stand by for future tablehopper shindigs!
I am currently running on very little sleep at the moment. I flew in to New York very late on Sunday night and tried to write as much of this column as I could yesterday before running off to attend the The World’s 50 Best Restaurants award show, held for the first time in New York. As you can imagine, it was quite the affair, hosted at Cipriani Wall Street. I got to interview a number of chefs for an article I’m writing for Time Out New York on where the visiting chefs like to eat when in New York (I’ll tweet it out tomorrow)! I felt a definite surge of Italian pride when Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana in Modena was named The World’s Best Restaurant 2016. Viva Italia!
I posted a bunch of pics on Instagram and Facebook. I hope you enjoy the snaps from the award show and the raucous after-party at Eleven Madison Park, which rose to number 3 on the list, making it the Best Restaurant in North America, and they won the Ferrari Trento Art of Hospitality Award! As for SF, it was great to see Dominique Crenn receive her World’s Best Female Chef 2016 award and to see the Saison crew break into the Top 50 at No. 27. I felt very fortunate to be there and to cover the event, with so much international talent in the room!
It would take an over-the-top event like that to take my mind off Orlando for a few hours. Kudos to Dominique for her heartfelt words onstage. Let’s all take good care of each other.
With love, Marcia Gagliardi
The winners of the World’s Best Restaurant, Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore, of Modena’s Osteria Francescana. Photo: © tablehopper.com.View tablehopper Newsletter from Tuesday, Jun 14 2016
