Last week Steve and I competed in the Casa Barilla invitational cooking challenge. The event was held in Central Park and was part of the three day Casa Barilla/Share the Table event that featured tons of great food, ed company and cooking classes and workshops by world-renowned chefs. Delicious espresso! All things Italian– it was awesome.
The cooking competition required chefs (aka me and Steve and 4 others…uhhh, chefs?!) to make a delicious meal in 25 minutes from a mystery basket of ingredients; the only certain ingredient was pasta, of course. The competition was live and hosted by the comedian RC Smith and judged by Iron Chef judge Mario Rizzotti, FOX’s Master Chef season two contestant Giuseppe Morisco and co-founder of Eater.com, Ben Leventhal.
Poor Stevie had no idea he was competing until he arrived at the event since I signed him up last minute. But who doesn’t like surprises, right? Neither of us ended up winning but we both had a great time participating and made some pretty mean dishes if I do say so myself. We also hit it off with the judges and Mario gave us VIP tickets to the following night’s Andrea Bocelli concert! Win!
The concert was part of Central Park’s Summer Stage series and was amazing. Sponsered by Barilla, there was tons of great food including pastas, salads, sandwiches, breadsticks and chocolate cookies, NOMM.
Food aside, the concert was truly magically. We sat about ten rows in and had perfect views of the handsome and ridiculously talented Andrea Bocelli. Little did I know Celine Dion was also there to perform “The Prayer,” with Andrea as a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor. I cried. Obviously. It was beautiful! And touching! To finish things off with a bang Tony Bennett also made an appearance and he and Andrea performed the classic “New York, New York.” I continued to cry. Out of happiness though!
The crisp air, the amazing music and performers, the city skyline in the background and the fact that we were there by chance just made for a really special evening.
Enjoy some pictures from the cooking competition and concert. The concert was taped and will air on PBS nationwide Dec. 2. I insist you tune in, you won’t regret it!
Cheers to fashion, seeing the world and always having fun!
Miss Zias
……Omg…Celine Dion!!!!!!!!!!! Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. LOVE. Love.
