A Nosh and Tell Night Out!

There are some moments in life that are completely unforgettable. You will forever have a picture engrained in your memory of that special time: births, proposals, weddings, over-the-hill birthdays are a few examples. For me, I had one of these moments last Thursday night.

Promptly at 9 p.m. I arrived at Chelsea Market to attend a Food Network Food and Wine festival event, Chelsea Market After Dark, hosted by Guy Fieri and Sandra Lee. To be honest, this was a dream come true. You may be wondering why. It’s not like I was about to meet Brad Pitt, right? Well let’s put it this way, Guy Fieri is my Brad Pitt and Sandra Lee is my Angelina. To make things even more amazing, the whole event was centered around my two favorite things: food and drinks!!!

Star-struck with Sandra Lee!

Cookies galore! All served by CIA students!

When I first arrived at the party, I went into the “Sandra Lee room”.  Everything was white and beautiful. There were flowers everywhere. Sandra was in the middle of the room, surrounded by a mob of fans. When it was finally my turn to talk to her, I ran up to her and gave her a huge hug. She welcomed me with a kiss and gave me a copy of her signed book of cocktails. I told her all about the blog, and we took a picture. It was over as soon as it began.

I then ran into Tyler Florence!! What a cutie! Anne Burell was also in the crowd as well as Bob Tuschman. I couldn’t wait to tell all of them about Nosh and Tell. Even if they immediately forgot what I was saying, it was still so exciting to tell them about something that Whitney and I created and have put so much heart and soul into.

Learning some secrets from this restaurant chef!

Tyler Florence!!! So hot!!!

Chilling with Bob Tuschman!!!

Chocolates from Jacques Torres!!

I took about five million pictures at the whole event and these are just a couple of the special ones. The event took over the entire Chelsea Market from 9-11. I will try my best to paint a picture for you; however, I know right now I will never be able to do the event real justice…

Every store was filled with hungry diners dressed to the 9′s. There were people handing out little hors d’oeuvres and stand after stand of red and white wine. Buddahkan’s table had beef carpaccio rolls. Morimoto’s table was serving tuna burgers and hamachi sandwiches. The Italian stand had warm pasta with cream sauce. There were sweet potato fries and avocado and brie roll ups. Dessert stands offered cakes, pies, cupcakes and chocolates. Every corner of the market was filled with the glorious aromas of food.

It was honestly a food lover’s paradise. I wish it could’ve lasted longer. When I walked out of Chelsea Market, I was inspired. This was an entire event created for and by people who love food just like me. And what could be better than that?

Bon Eating,

Ariel