The Great Chef's Dinner

I am a verrrrrrrry happy camper this week because, as some of you may have heard, I had the pleasure and good fortune of being able to work at the 2010 Great Chef's Dinner in Bridgehampton, New York.  The Great Chef's Dinner is a charity benefit for the Jeff Salaway Scholarship Fund at Hayground School.  I got to work at the dinner because I've been a counselor at the Hayground School Day Camp for the past few summers.

Included in the event is a two hour cocktail hour with the chefs, with hors d'oeuvres prepared on site by prominent executive chefs of the Hamptons like Vittorio Assaf of Serafina, Christian Mir of Stone Creek Inn, Jason Weiner of Almond and many others. After the cocktail hour is an exclusive four course dinner cooked by Eric Ripert, extremely successful executive chef of La Bernardin in New York City and guest judge on Bravo TV's Top Chef.  Chefs Marc Meyer, Laurent Tourondel, Miche Bacher, and Emily Wallenjack of other prominent New York City restaurants also contributed to the dinner. On the guest list for the event were Jon Bon Jovi, Star Jones, and Richard Gere among others. Yes I'm name dropping, so sue me.

At the cocktail hour, I was able to taste several dishes cooked by the chefs such as Vittorio Assaf's Carciofi e Parmigiano Insalate (which is Italian for awesome artichoke salad) and Colicchio & Sons' Pork carnitas with spicy eggplant caponata.  But my favorite dish of the night, hands down, was the Lemon Verbena-Peach and Berry Crisp with Goat Cream Cheese from Claudia Fleming of the North Fork Table and Inn.  However, I have to say that the highlight of my evening was meeting and chatting briefly with Bravo TV's Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio!  He was so nice, bouncing his baby son Luca on his knee and smiling as I spoke.  I was on a high for the rest of the night.