had a great time last week at the food and wine best new chefs event in nyc. lucky for me, lee anne wong from top chef season one is always a huge help! she used to work for the french culinary institute in the city and set me up with a kitchen to get prepped in.

featured recipe: seared scallops with goat cheese yukon puree, white and green asparagus, shredded ham and sorrel vinaigrette

it is always a little tricky coming in from out of town and trying to cook a dish for over 600 people, but it helps to have chef friends in those cities to help. thanks also to my friend ryan who is the chef of savoy restaurant in soho…great cozy place if you have not tried it yet.

we got to the event and realized that there were only six chefs preparing food. it was not that we thought we would run out of food, since we were prepped with over 600 portions….we just realized that we were going to get our butts kicked. i had decided to do seared scallops that night because, well, i love scallops. pretty sure the other chefs thought i was nuts. we prepared seared diver scallops with shredded ham, white and green asparagus, goat cheese-yukon puree and a sorrel vinaigrette. very seasonal to shout out to the first week of spring. of course here in chicago you would guess we were in the first week of winter with the snow on the ground, but that is a different story. i think we were the only table of chefs working up a sweat that night….mainly because we had four burners going in the corner of the room and it was probably 95 degrees. note to self: stick with chilled or room temperature dishes for large events.

actually it was a lot of fun and when we put the last couple of scallops out, lee ann and i felt like we had just won a top chef challenge. then it was time for the real fun to begin. the dj for the party was just my style…a lot of cheesy songs that i could sing along with and that made me want to get my groove on. i held back a bit since it does feel a bit off trying to dance in a chef outfit….just takes all the sexiness out of it. so instead we just mixed and mingled with the industry and food and wine magazine peeps for a bit…always a fun crowd. then came the after party followed by a trip to the spotted pig. seems many of my late new york nights end up with some cocktails and tasty treats at the pig. perfect way to top off the evening. congrats to all of the winners of food and wine best new chefs this year! now i have a whole new list of restaurants i have to try, soon!