Surrounded by Culinary Greatness: James Beard Awards Ceremony & Gala

The James Beard Awards were this past Monday but already seem like a distant memory – I wish I could do it again!  Rubbing shoulders with the best chefs and TV food personalities in the country?  Sounds good to me.  We walked past the red carpet (green, actually) as Susan Ungaro (President of the James Beard Foundation), Tom Colicchio, Marcus Samuelsson, and his model wife Maya Haile were arriving.  The funniest thing was when one of the press photographers thought we were actually some kind of famous couple (see photo below - hahah in hindsight, we should have played along). 

 

I was no more than a foot away as Bobby Flay was getting interviewed.  James Beard Award winner Saipin Chutima (Lotus of Siam) sat two rows in front of us during the awards ceremony.  We ran into Yigit (winner of Top Chef: Just Desserts) and my husband yelled out to him and said hello.  We saw Wylie Dufresne of wd~50,