Great Chefs of LA 2009

(This is a big long post with LOTS of photos. It may be slow to load, especially for my mom who still has dial up internet)

Last Sunday was the annual Great Chefs of LA event, a fundraiser held every year for the Kidney Foundation on the CBS Radford Studios Lot. I bought tickets on goldstar.com and I won two tickets from www.foodgps.com

This was our first year to go and I loved starting off with a "green" carpet walk and photo op -


The theme this year was "Go Green, Go Organic" so the green carpet certainly fit.


George Lopez (a national spokes person for the National Kidney Foundation) arrived sometime after we did and I was able to get a photo -
He seemed a little tired and very distracted. He did several interviews and it seemed hard for him to focus.
Why is he looking at me taking his photo when he should be paying attention to the woman with the microphone? This was the day before his national talk show started so I'm sure he had a lot on his mind. I haven't watched it yet, I've been too busy to really watch much tv. (says the girl who makes her living making tv)






After checking in at the front desk and getting our silent auction number we grab a wine glass. There were over 20 wineries with lots of selections for us to sample!!


I decided to start with champagne!! I probably visited the Piper Heidsieck table 4 times that day. They were happy to give me a "sample" every time :)





The day was warm and summery, and one cocktail that hit the spot was at the table sponsored by Bazaar.

They had this rock star chef making liquid nitrogen caipirinhas!


Here's what my sample looked like -

The finished texture was similar to a frozen margarita - but it took no time at all for the chef to prepare them to order. Super refreshing! I haven't been to Bazaar yet and this was an excellent first impression.


Another interesting cocktail was at the Moonshadows booth -
Pictured above is a Virgin Octopus Bloody Mary. I didn't try it but GloZell did. She loved it and said it was nice and spicy. The octopus is the the skewer on top of the cocktail and the chef also put some of the cooking juices from the octopus in the tomato juice for the cocktail mix. I've been to Moonshadows a few times and always enjoyed the food there. Check out my review here.

Onto some of the food selections

How about a duck sandwich with butternut squash soup from the Celestino Drago table -


Q gets a vegetarian panini from another booth (sorry I forgot the restaurant this was from)


The Border Grill didn't have a booth - they brought their own special taco truck -


Here's some amazing fish cheviche - and an avocado taco with a nice mix of grains -
I could have stopped there, but we had so much more to sample!!


I'm glad that I kept going because this table had my favorite dish of the entire event -



Braised veal short ribs served on polenta -

time and time again I realize that I am a meat and potatoes (or polenta) kind of girl. Even in the heat this dish was like soul food to me. It just melted in my mouth, the seasoning was simple and really let the veal be the star.

We had a little more wine -
and then it was on to some exotic game from the Saddle Peak Lodge table -
Antelope? Count me in!! I couldn't wait to try some.



I liked it!! and it wasn't gamey at all. It reminded me of really nicely prepared venison tenderlion.


time for more wine -
and then some sushi -





The Pom folks had a table - with all kinds of pomegranate juice blends and they even had pomegranate cupcakes -






I'm not a fan of caviar but Q really enjoyed this Chilled Vichyssoise -



Q's favorite dish of the event was - the spicy ahi tuna tacos in wanton shells from Minx!Their presentation is so nice too! I've driving by Minx on the way to Pasadena several times and NEVER thought to eat there because the place looks more like a night club than a restaurant.
After trying these tacos - I'll make a point to pop in whenever I'm on the 134.




We didn't taste this dish but it looked delicious. We were just out of room.

The chefs were present and presenting.

This was one of the unique companies out here. They have sushi poppers (like push ups) with three cuts per roll. You can pour the soy sauce right on top. It was surprisingly good.
Their specialty is beach business. When you get off the surf, dripping with saltwater and covered in sand, you can walk up and grab one without having to shower and change. This is such a good idea for a quick healthy bite on the go and I think they are great for picnics too! You should start seeing these Sushi Poppers at 7-11 and Famima soon.



The gift table (swag table) was the end of the line. As we exited we received a gift bag and a fresh pomegranate. The Great Chef's of LA is a yearly event and all the proceeds go to the Kidney foundation. It's a little expensive, but remember it's all TAX DEDUCTIBLE. It feels good to give and taste good too.