NYC Food and Wine Festival

The Sico family (sans Jillian) had a blast at the 2010 NYC Food and Wine Festival this past weekend (October 7-10). Here are the pictures to prove it.

First, we have two pictures of Joyce with her very favorite Chocolate maker - Jacques Torres at the "Chelsea Market After Dark" event:

Next is Joyce with "Good Eats" and "Next Iron Chef" host Alton Brown, also at Chelsea After Dark:

The Chelsea After Dark event was outstanding again this year, although there seemed to be a few less "food celebrities" in attendance, even those of the "C" and "D" list variety. But the food and drink were awesome.

Our children, Donica and her husband Rick and Lesley and her husband Robin, joined us the following evening for the "Chopped" event. There we ran into:

Chopped host and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" personality Ted Allen. Here he is seen giving a great big welcome hug to "Dinner Impossible" host Robert Irvine:

We also have Ted Allen and Robert Irvine with Joyce and Lesley:

and just Ted with Donica (and our granddaughter):

All of the "Chopped" show judges were on hand.

Here we have Judge Aaron Sanchez (who also is the star of "Chef v. City") with Joyce and then with Lesley:

Next we have Joyce with Judge Geoffrey Zakarian:

Joyce and Lesley shared a moment with Judge Alex Guarnaschelli. She had the coolest shoes on which I also took a picture of ... although Alex said she "felt dirty" when I snapped the shot!

Next is Joyce with frequent Chopped Judge and Landmarc restaurant chef-owner Marc Murphy:

And with Chopped champion Madison Cowan:

With Chopped Judge and NYC Scarpetta restaurant Chef-Owner Scott Conant, who by the way, told us that "if you just do it right, it IS possible to make red onions taste good.":

Judge and The Stanton Social restaurant chef-owner Chris Santos:

Former "Next Iron Chef" contestant, Chopped Judge and former Executive Chef at Gusto in the West Village Amanda Frietag with Joyce:

Joyce with two-time James Beard Award winner, chef of choice of Oprah AND Obama AND Jeb Bush, author, Iron Chef America Judge, owner of celebrated restaurants in Chicago and Washington DC and a guy who just lost a ton of weight and will run in the NYC Marathon - Chef Art Smith:

And last, but not least, at the Chopped event was "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" show host and competitor on the Next Iron Chef and someone who started her career as a sous chef for famed Lidia Bastianich and who insists that Guy Fieri stole his spiky hairdo from her, Anne Burrell:

On Saturday morning, we got up and went to a "Milk and Cookies" event with Martha Stewart. You will not see a lot of pictures of us with Martha here because, well, she is a witch - only with a "B." At one point, after signing oh maybe a good three or four autographs, she told a begging ten-year old, "I'm done. I am not signing anymore autographs."


Lesley did manage to sneak up beside her when Martha wasn't looking and I snapped this shot:

Now the cookies on the other hand were incredible, but really, how many cookies can one eat at 10:30 am?


Far nicer and pleasanter was "Top Chef Just Desserts" contestant Eric Wolitzky, seen here with Joyce:

We hightailed it to the Subway from the Milk and Cookies event to get back downtown to see the one and only Giada De Laurentiis at a culinary demonstration. It was hard to get good pictures from the second to last row, but here is the best I could do:

The beautiful Ms. De Laurentiis was great and made smashed potatoes, pork chops "argodolce" and chocolate espresso cookies. No matter how high he raised his hand or how loudly he shouted, Robin just could not get called upon to go on stage as a volunteer chef. We all understood that he simply wanted to show off his cooking talents and not get closer to Giada.


After the Giada show it was time to head over to the aptly named "Grand Tasting" on Pier 54. What an incredible gluttonous drunken feast! Scores of tastings all for the taking!


We met a few "food celebrities" at the tasting. First was the darned cutest of all television celebrity chefs, Kelsey Nixon, seen here with Robin and Lesley (who she actually remembered seeing on an airplane and train during their trip to Paris):

Kelsey, who finished fourth on the second season of "The Next Food Network Star," nevertheless will be getting her own show "Kelsey's Essentials" on the new Cooking Channel. The show will debut Saturday November 6th at 2:30 p.m. (You are welcome for the plug, Kelsey.)


Also getting his own show ("Cooking Without Borders") is Next Food Network Star finalist Jeffrey Saad, who - and I bet you did not know this - is also the National Spokesperson for The American Egg Board. Here he is with Joyce:

We also saw the most handsomest of celebrity chefs and a finalist of the most recently completed Top Chef season (won by Willingboro resident and RATS restaurant Chef Kevin Sbraga - Angelo Sosa (no relation to Jose). Here he is with Joyce:

Joyce is also seen here with a couple of celebrated Greek chefs, Jim Botsacos (left) and Michael Psilakis:

On the way back to the hotel, we ran into Guy Fieri who had just finished signing books. I took a picture and he said, "Wait. Take a picture of me with the President." (Food Network President Susie Fogelson). So I did, but not before saying, "I thought Obama was the President."

Now you would think that after all this we would have just gone back to the hotel and passed out, but nooooo ...
That evening we went to Godiva's "Sweet" event hosted by Sandra Lee and "Ace of Cakes" Duff Goldman.


Here are Donica and Rick with Sandy baby (who I have to say was a bit tipsy), but still signed cookbooks for us (even though she did write "Joice" instead of Joyce - who does that?!):

Here is Joyce with Duff:

And Lesley with Dinner Impossible's Robert Irvine and then with Guy Fieri:

And Joyce with 2006 James Beard Pastry Award winner and Top Chef: Just Desserts Judge Johnny Iuzzini:

On Sunday, after a quick tour of Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich's new and incredible gourmet food store "Eataly," we went to see the chef who needs not introduction: Bobby Flay.


Flay was funny and personable and fabulous. And we got an extra treat when first Kelsey Nixon joined him and then the one and only Paula Deen. We had a seats a little closer, but still hard to take photos:

After the kids departed, Joyce and I topped off the weekend by attending Guy Fieri's "Triple Ten Closing Party" at City Winery.


Some old friends from the weekend dropped by, including:


Anne Burrell

Amanda Frietag

Marc Murphy

Top Chef finalist Fabio Viviani

And last, and in all honesty, probably least, that guy with the crazy hair from the Next Food Network Star - Michael Proietti:

We had a great time, but we will need every minute from now until the 2011 NYC Food and Wine Festival (September 29-October 2, 2011) to recover!