Star Jones Has Heart ...

Hey there! Well, I left you Friday with a question, which Celebrity Apprentice contestant did I have a photo shoot with that day? Star Jones! She's the new Editor-At-Large for Uptown Magazine and invited me to her place for a chat among chefs ...That's the executive chef, Clarence Van de Mark of Del Frisco's, a 35 million dollar a year restaurant here in NYC, then author of Grace the Table, Chef Alexander Smalls, Miss Star Jones, myself and Chef Herb Wilson. I'm always the non-chef in these 'chef chats', so GOOOOOOOOO home cooks!! I'm scoring one for the team!! It was a great dinner party and discussion about food today and I can't wait for you to catch the issue! It's a bi-monthly, so it'll be on stands starting in April and run for a couple months. I'll make sure to let you know when it's out.

So, of course conversation led to chatter about the new season of Celebrity Apprentice and her role on the show. Each celebrity picks a charity to support and each challenge during the show is about raising money for their respective charities. Star chose the American Heart Association for a very good reason. Just last year a week before her 48th birthday, she had open heart surgery to fix a complication from heart disease and wants more people to know about the 82 million people affected by this disease everyday. The show is the perfect platform so she quickly invited me to her viewing party that would happen last night and I easily accepted the invitation. I got all dressed up last night and headed to Opia to watch Star in the premiere episode of the show. I took this picture to show my bestie what I was wearing because she always asks, then when I looked at it I realized some of my treadmill time is working, I didn't even have to suck in! C'mon ladies, summertime is on the way we can do it!!!

I hear watching Food Network is all the rage on a treadmill, if that's you, you are not alone! Anyway, I went to Star's event by myself so I was totally hoping to run into someone, anyone I knew. Luckily, I was only there 5 minutes and ran into Alexander Smalls, the chef I met at Star's place just two days before. Here we are cheesin with my red boa ...Then I ran into someone I haven't seen in years, radio host Shelley Wade. Shelley and I both did midday radio at competing stations here in NYC years ago and were very friendly unlike some other people in the business. I never understood why people at different stations didn't get along. What's not to like about someone that loves to do what you love to do? Anyway, that's a whole other discussion, I was just happy to reconnect with her. She's still on the air and you can catch her late nights at NYC's Z-100. The dinner was also a fund raiser for the American Heart Association and everyone making a donation got a boa, I'm tucking mine away for some crafting in the future (omg, am I a hoarder?). The dinner was fabulous and before anything got started, Star made a very passionate speech about her journey with heart disease and how much she wants to not only spread the word, but help decrease heart disease by 20% in 2020. Here she is before a big screen dropped behind her for us to all view Celebrity Apprentice ...She looked lovely and spoke so passionately, everyone gave her a standing ovation. Here's the crowd once they settled back in their seats ...Packed house, eh? I didn't realize until I uploaded that picture that by chance I caught former New York Governor, David Patterson. He's in the far right corner next to the curtains, but it's totally a click and enlarge. Then a 'know his head-shape' thing lol. Here's another pic to enlarge if you want to know what we dined on at this heart-healthy event ...I opted for the tartare and the salmon. Both were tasty and healthy, not bad at all! After eating our entrees the room fell to hushed-tones and Celebrity Apprentice began. What a good episode! If you dvr'd I won't spoil it, but Star was ahem, the star :-).

Ok, stick around I have details about the new season of Cooking for Real and tomorrow I head out to tape a segment for the crew at Best Thing I Ever Ate. I can't wait to eat because it's at a street vendor!!! Then, a little quality time with the treadmill ...