Friday night was the opening event of The 4-day spectacular that is The Taste. There was a choice between Burgers and Beer or a cocktail event, or to try to be Superblogger and make both events. I chose the burger event. There were sliders from restaurants like L.A. Market, The Bowery, BLD and Rosewood Tavern. Delphine made an adorable little burger-on-a-stick, and Nyesha Arrington of Wilshire Restaurant paired a Roasted Pork Slider (topped with a delicious apple chutney) with Sam Smith’s Organic Cider, cutting through the fat. The Counter had a fantastic vegetarian burger, and Kerry Simon had a burger that caused me to make that incredulous face when can’t believe how delicious something is. Thank God for Church and State’s Foie Gras Parfait to give us a little break from the burgers. Desserts were provided by Cake Moms and The Cheesecake Factory.
It was a star-studded event. I talked to Debi Mazar, who besides having the coolest look in Hollywood, has her own food blog called “Under the Tuscan Gun.” She will be doing a cooking demo along with Gabriele Corcos at “Picnic in the Hills” on Monday. Scott Krinsky, who plays Jeff Barnes on the TV series “Chuck” was there with his personal fromagier. Besides being a successful actor, he also majored in Journalism and attended culinary school…which would make him the perfect food blogger! I yelled, “Jeff!” at him and apologized for not knowing his real name.
He said, “My real name is Jeff.”
“Really?”
“No.”
I was told Kathy Griffin was there and immediately turned into a frantic 12-year-old girl. Someone spilled my one beer all over me as I rushed to find her, so there are no beer reviews here. And I met her sopping wet and reeking of beer.
There were also a number of star chefs in attendance. I’m kind of afraid of Scott Conant after watching one too many episodes of “Chopped” so I didn’t interrupt him. I stopped to chat with Marcel Vigneron and his friends. I saw a few TV stars pass by, and I told Marcel, “I want to photograph them, but I don’t remember their names and I hate to say, ‘Oh, you’re that guy, from that show!'”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Right, you’re the foam guy.”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s OK, but it does get kind of old.”
“Yeah, like, ‘Great, that’s what’s going to be on my tombstone…Oh my God!…you can make meat foam, right?”
(Marcel just stares at me)
“Like, you can take a steak and make a steak foam, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So you could make a Marcel foam.”
(everyone stares at me, kind of confused)
“…OK, so when you die, you could say like ‘I don’t want to be buried or cremated. I want to be made into foam and like, spread on the sea.'”
“I am going to put that in my will.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s probably rude to talk about your death.”
“No, it’s a really good idea.”
