SoBe Wine and Food Festival 2012: Where to find me!

Hey there! I just wanted to tell you about some events this weekend in Miami for the SoBe Wine and Food Festival. This is my 4th year? I can't remember lol, I'm getting old and counting only works when I'm motivated by beer and it's too early for that :-). Or should I say wine? I'm just happy to be invited, it's for charity and I don't see a thing wrong with that! If you want to see some old posts from the events over the years, just click on the "Sobe" tag below this post or look to the right and click on the that list. I meant left and I'm not hitting backspace. Ok, so first thing I want to tell you about is:

1. FRIDAY Catch me co-hosting Live Miami on NBC from 11-noon with the ladies. I've done cooking segments with the morning show, but this time around I'm so happy to join the ladies a bit later in the morning for an hour. I occasionally catch my girl Sara Gore here in NYC on our version of the show called NY Live, so I look forward to the chat-fest in Miami. I'll be there the whole hour, then I have a cooking segment at the end. If the weather holds up, we'll grill outside, if not, I'll make it work on a grill pan indoors, cuz that's what I do ... I make it work like Tim Gunn. :-) I can't wait! We'll have comedian/actor John Witherspoon to interview, he's in town for a show and has a new movie coming out. We'll also have a rep from wine glass makers, Riedel, to talk wine. Why? Why not?! It's the Sobe Wine and Food Festival! Can't wait!

2. SATURDAY MORNING I'm cookin my butt off at the Grand Tasting Village at 5:30PM. Oh my, that means when I go to the parties Friday night, I need to make sure I just do the food part, not the wine part LOL. That's an early rise for a wine fest so I hope ya join me!! Yes, 530 will be early LOL. Check for me on the green stage. Speaking of Friday night, there are so many events, I will surely do the Burger Bash and Robert Irvine has asked me to help with his Party Impossible event. I'm hoping to have energy for it all, look at me sounding old LOL. Ok, FYI, My menu for Saturday under the Grand Tasting tents is called "Words with Friends" and it's all about fun apps and things to make when you have guests over for a chat fest. I'm most excited to show you how to make a fast dessert with beer. Yes, I know it's a wine fest, but beer can hang out too :-).

3. SATURDAY NIGHT This is something I CAN'T WAIT FOR!!! SOOONNNNNIIIIIICCCCC!!!! Ok, let me calm down and tell you the deal. Woooohsaaaaah ... It's the Best Thing I Ever Ate - Late Night event on the beach. This is all about us serving you the things we love. It took some work and some calls and some smiles through emails and phone calls, but Sonic, myself and the SoBe team got it done and my absolutely favorite fast food place to eat late night is on board!! They've even created things for the event. SO HAPPY!!! So, join us in the tents for a Cherry Limeade Martini (virgin style) and several small bites off the menu, with a concentration on their various hot dogs. You know what? You deserve the menu:

Sonic Dog Bites of Premium Menu Dogs

Chicago Dog Bite w/ relish and poppy seed bun

All American Dog Bite w/KMMRO Sauce

New York Dog Bite w/fresh cabbage & kraut slaw, grainy mustard dressing, onions

Chili Cheese Dog Bite w/pimento cheese, warm chili

Sonic Classic Chili Cheese Tots w/ green chili cheese and warm chili

I SAID TOTS!!!!!!!!!! TOTS BABY!!!TOTSSS!!! LOL Can you feel my excitement?!?!?

Classic Sonic Cherry Limeade Martini w/ Lime Scented Sugar, fresh lime and a cherry.

So seriously, come hang out with me under the glow of Sonic. I'm packing my favorite yellow Sonic Cherry Limeade shirt, and my cherry limeade earrings. Yes, I own Sonic wear. This is how much I love it! It may have something to do with it being my 1st paying job in high school, but I have faith I would have found a love for tots and cherry limeades somehow along the way. Join me if you have a love and if you don't, join me so I can bring you over to the tot-side.

3. SUNDAY Join me at the Kidz Kitchen on Jungle Island at 1PM. This year it's all about getting the kids to eat healthy. I never had that issue as a kid, mommy and daddy made it, and I ate it. There were no excuses. I may have to call mommy and daddy for some inspiration before I go on and talk to the families there. I don't get the issue. Eat your veggies and fruits kids!! I've developed a fun and healthy menu. When I turned it in, one of the organizers asked if I'd change the bread on my grilled cheese to wheat and I said "NO" LOL...there's already apples, spinach and protein from nuts in there. I'm not trying to make robot kids, just happy and healthy ones. I think that's where people make a mistake, trying to make every single element of a meal "healthy". Carbs are carbs, let's get some other stuff into play. Ok, so I call this demo "An Apple A Day" because apples are in each course. I'm making soup in a Vitamix, grillin some sandwiches and making a quick apple compote for dessert. Join me with your family for a PG show :-).

Ok, those are my official events, but please .... if you see me, I run with what I call a "NON-tourage", you are more than welcome to interrupt a call, a conversation, anything. This is your time to tell me you think I look smaller in person :-). LOL See ya this weekend!!!

SoBe Wine and Food Festival: OMG where did my week go?

Hey there! Well, needless to say I am sooo behind here. Is it ok with you? I feel like I had an assignment and I'm late. Reminds me of the people I used to work with at the magazine I edited. Everyone waited until the last second to get things in, but things still looked good! Hope that's the case here, let me roll out the remaining pics and stories from this year's SoBe Wine and Food Festival (check the link, there are pics there too!) ...

Saturday I headed out to the Grand Tasting Village for my cooking demonstration. Promptly after a sweet intro by Lauren Mueller, our director of public relations, I hit the stage at 3:15 to cook, for real :-) ...
That's me welcoming the crowd. It was packed, save for about 10 seats in the direct sun, some smart people decided to stand in the corner instead of sweat! It was hot!! I'm wearing jeans because my closet is a mess, I have no idea were my cargos or shorts are, I'm lucky I'm not wearing a turtleneck, as it's still cold in NYC lol. Anyway, I had a full menu with my Sweet Potato Hash and my Easy String Beans and Onions, but started with my Sweet Glazed Butterflied Chicken. All of these recipes are on the way in season 9 of Cooking for Real, can't wait for you to see it! First things up, let's do the butterfly!!I'm a skin junkie and the butterfly is the way to maximize my happiness. I like to start my cooking demos with technique so I can spend the rest of the time gossiping and talking about life stuff. If you were there, you now know which American Idol I can't stand, simply because she makes "it" look so easy! So, really ... I LOVE HER! You also know the difference between my South Carolina grandma and my North Carolina grandma teeheehee. Ok, so mid-way through my cooking demonstration, I noticed people a bit distracted with something left of the stage. I quickly turned to see these guys walking up to join me on stage for the fun ...We actually took that pic after my cooking demonstration was over. Guy and Emeril were so kind to jump on stage with me, it was a total surprise and really nice of them both. As I've said many times, Emeril gave me my start, with out him, I wouldn't be on Food Network. Then, Guy was the first host I met at the network that basically said to me "here's all my info, call or email if you have ANY questions about the gig". I took him up on the offer (which people hardly ever expect when they offer) and like a champ, he imparted some serious jewels I'm still very thankful for. So, it was really nice of them to jointly step up on the stage with me and say hi to the crowd. Just an hour or so later, I'd do the same and walk onto Guy's stage with Emeril and Robert Irvine. We went out to start the show and his crowd was so wild they all stood up in anticipation of Guy. I took this picture from the back of the crowd after we did the intro ... Pretty crowded, eh? You can barely see him, may have to click to enlarge the pic. I told Guy he's all over the place in NYC because now there's a Minute to Win it lottery ticket. Crazy. I was so excited to tell you about Guy and Emeril joining in on my demonstration, that I forgot to tell you about the Oscar winning celeb we had in the audience ...That's DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia. Of course, they won an Oscar a few years back for a soundtrack song to Hustle & Flow. I was totally caught off guard when he walked up to me and said he watched Cooking for Real all the time! I then asked him if he was "ready for this!?", he said "yup", so I told him how about 10 years ago when I turned 25, he performed with his group at my birthday party in Detroit, Michigan along with rapper Trina. Yep, I loved them long before the Academy Award :-). I was a radio dj at the time and begged for them to come perform and they did. The party was a sellout and it had so much to do with them showing up for the fun. He immediately remembered the night because of some unique circumstances, but it was neat for him to realize it was me then and here I am now, lol. Really funny moment and so neat to find he watches the show all the time. He talked to me about specific recipes and everything, pretty cool. I plan to have him visit the show in the next season and he's promised me he'd bring the Oscar along. That should be a fun episode, I'm already planning the menu! We all chatted for a few, then I bumped into this b*#chin' chick ...That's Nadia G, Host of Cooking Channel's B*#chin' Kitchen. I saw her the night before at the BubbleQ event, but it was too crowded to get to her, so I was happy to stop and chat at the grand tasting tent. She's really neat, check out her show if you aren't already b*#chin' :-). Ok, thennnnn the night before I stopped by the BubbleQ event and quickly found I had to go straight to the back of the tent for a trio of fun ...Word of mouth is the way to go at these events and it's usually the first thing I'm asking people "where's the good stuff?", as if it isn't all good, but you get me. I can't possibly eat all 30 booths of food. So that pic above is from the booth in the back with all the buzz. The chef is holding what I lovingly will call a "trough of love". It's one-third each of mac n cheese, BBQ and baked beans. Look at the display they had to advertise the "trough of love" ... I think the baked beans were the best followed by the BBQ and the mac. I headed over to get some cheesy grits from another booth and ran into Alex Guarnaschelli getting some desserts from a guy walking around with food furniture attached to him lol ... is that what you call it? "Food furniture"?? ...He was really nice and funny. I looked, but didn't get a dessert. I was saving myself for some cheese grits ...I must admit, I only ate the grits. I know there are short ribs involved and I'm a sucker for them, but after the "trough of love", I didn't have much space left. Alex actually came on stage with me at my demo the next day and told the crowd how I asked for an extra serving of grits, I totally did. I mean, a dollop of grits?! That just isn't right ... I mean a couple of spoonfuls, yes ... a dollop, no. Teeheehee, plus they were super creamy. Really can't go wrong with creamy grits. right after that, I started heading towards the front of the tent to leave, it was such a huge tent that it really took about 45 minutes to get from one end to the other. Right as I got to the end, I ran into Ingrid Hoffman ...She's so delicioso :-), I told her I watch her show on Galavision to learn the language faster. I already know plenty of food words in Spanish, so it makes it easier to learn the other words. Love it!

Alright, that's it for my visit to Miami except for a place that has become a must-visit. I'm talking about Haitian restaurant Tap Tap. I ordered the stewed chicken, rice and peas and fried plantains ...Geez, I was so happy I took it easy all weekend so I could indulge in some goodness! Ok, that's all I have left of the 2011 Sobe Wine and Food Festival! Mark your calendar for 2012 ... February 23-26!!!

Stick around, I have a photo shoot tomorrow with a contestant from this season of Apprentice, can you guess who it may be??

SoBe Wine and Food Festival: Best Thing I Ever Ate at the Beach ... ...

Hey there! Well, I got through my third SoBe Wine and Food Festival without a hangover or a tummy ache from all the good drinks and food. I have more pictures to share so let's go backwards ...

That's Dwyane Wade of the Heat visiting my booth at The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Beach party. I met him briefly last summer at an event in the Hamptons and he and his girlfriend Gabrielle Union said they watch Food Network all the time and like Cooking for Real too! Very nice! I hear athletes can burn up to 10,000 calories a day, so hopefully one of them is not just watching, but cooking, for real :-). I actually found my way in to the 1st game between the Heat and the Knicks since they signed Carmelo Anthony and last night headed out to watch the Knicks win it in the last minutes of the game ... I won two bets on that game, both with food pay offs, so I'm pretty excited! The night before before D. Wade stopped by my booth, I made the rounds myself and chatted with a few other participants ...That's Bethenny Frankel just a couple of booths away from her was the newest addition to The Cooking Channel, Debi Mazar ... She was there with her husband Gabrielle. I interviewed them on Valentine's Day when I was filling in on Martha Stewart's radio station at Sirius/XM so it was nice to meet them in person. It was really neat to see what people chose as the best thing they ever ate on the beach. Mine was a no brainer, If you are around here often, especially at the start of summer, you know how I like to kick off the season with a trip to Nathan's for a bacon cheddar hot dog at Coney Island in Brooklyn. So, I put on my pink "I heart NY" t-shirt and passed out a piece of boardwalk history ... I topped them both with chopped onions on a whim, but most of the night I served them the way I love em, bacon ad cheddar cheese sauce. I also left the option of people getting one plain with all the toppings lined up on the side. So chili, sauerkraut, relish and all the other usual condiments were on hand if people wanted to personalize their dog. I had so much fun meeting everyone that stopped by for a dog and a picture. The Nathan's team was pretty cool too. We all joked about how much 'hard' work it would be to hand out hot dogs on the beach in Miami vs. the current weather in Coney Island. Here we are before things got busy ...They were all so much fun to work with and they've invited me to come hang out on the 4th of July for the annual hot dog eating contest. As you know, I'm totally into the MLE scene and obviously Nathan's, so I can't wait!! During the set up of each station before the night began, Andrew Zimmern dropped by to have a dog then just as he was leaving we caught host of Mexican Made Easy, Marcella Valladolid and took a picture ...Her booth was just a few away from mine, so I had my bestie take a shot of it while I was slinging hot dogs ...The tent was filled with booths offering beach foods from all over the country and there were huge screens playing loops of The Best Thing I Ever Ate episodes. There were also these neat decorations with quotations from the show blown up large enought to read from a distance, but one in particular I had to get close to ...(click to enlarge)I don't remember saying it, but as soon as I read it, it sounded like something silly I'd say. It was pretty cool reading all the quotes, so I took another so you can enjoy as well ... Take a look at the tent before it got crowded ...

It's the same tent from the night before at the BubbleQ event. Stick around, I'll post those pictures up overnight. Until then, if you came to my booth that night, thanks so much for the smiles! Here's a video I found from Plum with some of the action at the event ... Everyone was so nice and people in line helped each other with each other's cameras, very nice crew of food people waiting on a Nathan's hot dog. Thanks for a great night!!

Ok, up next ... the Grand Tasting Village and my cooking demonstration, the BubbleQ and more ...

SoBe Wine and Food Festival: Chick Stole My Look & NBC Stuff

Hey! Well this will be fast because my battery is low and I'm logging in from the pool (sorry about the pool reference if you are in the cold, but when in Rome, eh?). Ok, so last night was the kick-off event for the 2011 SoBe Wine and Food Festival down here in Miami. It was hosted by Food Network Magazine at the Fountainbleu Hotel, along with myself, Melissa D'Arabian, Scott Conant and Anne Burrell. I'd love to show some pictures, but I was so busy saying hi and talking peoples ears off that I only have one picture from the party to show, but it's a winner. In the paraphrased words of Ms. Joan Rivers ... CHICK Stole My Look!!

Funny right? The tops were actually similar, but not the same. Funny thing is, there were actually two women at the party with the exact same white dress on :-(, don't you hate that ladies? All I can say is great minds think alike, so if you ever see someone stealing your look, walk up and say hi ... you may make a friend. I have drink and dinner plans with my doppelganger when I get home from Miami! I wanna see her closet! Ok then this morning I headed over to hang out with my friends at the local NBC affiliate. I met the crew of South Florida Today last year when I was down here for the festival and they told me whenever I was in town to call, so I did and we made plans to cook up some fun! Here I am getting my anchor-on ...

I tell ya, I love the news ... I was just playing in this seat, but I'd love to fill-in on the news one day. I started out writing news stories in high school. It would totally be a neat full circle thing. Until then, I'm sharing my love of food!!! Check out the video if you missed it or are out of the area ...

View more videos at: http://www.nbcmiami.com.

I prepared my Grilled Smoked Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Glaze, Jicama Salsa and Pineapple Spritz. To get it all ready for me was my sous chef, Andres. Here we are smiling away because eating time is within minutes!!Andres worked great under pressure because after we did the planned segment and he was all packed up, the team asked if we could do another for the new NBC Non-Stop channel, and we both quickly unpacked and got it together!! I do things with a smile and it was cool working with someone else that handles pressure with a smile. Thanks Andres!!!

Here I am with the hosts between the break making sure the chops don't burn too much ...

We all ate plenty and they loved the Pineapple Spritz. Let me tell you it is the most simple drink ever and I made it one day just looking through my pantry for stuff. The can of crushed pineapple is what started it all! Ok, tonight is the burger bash! A special thanks to Samantha from Vivo's Specialty Foods, I was sitting here typing away and she dropped by with a gift ...Bloody Mary Mix!!! I told her it would be perfect for my unofficial hair-of-the-dog party Monday morning! Can you believe she actually had the nerve to apologize for "interrupting" me? Look, I am going to say it again ... I don't mind being interrupted. If you are down here, you've paid for the tickets, you've taken time off work, maybe you paid for the pets to board or for the baby sitter ... please ... interrupt me! You've done so much and all I've done is share recipes. I don't have an entourage or any of the high-falootin' mess :-), just me and my recipes. So, please tap me on the shoulder and say hi! I'll try not to talk your ear off teeheehee. Ok, stick around because I'm headed to the Burger Bash hosted by Rachel Ray tonight!

SoBe it! 2010 - Final Shots II

Hey there! Well, it's taken me a bit to post the final shots from the SoBe Food and Wine festival because I took a few extra days in Miami to relax. I ate out, hibernated in my room a bit and went out to clubs with friends. If you are in Miami, Club Louis at the Gansevoort South is perfect on a Tuesday night for a good party! I went out with some friends and didn't even get to sleep before my 7AM flight. That's good for chef/restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, because I sat next to her on my flight home and slept the whole way. If I weren't so tired, I may have talked her ear off or at least gushed to tell her how proud I am as a business woman. I did get a chance to edit it down to just a few minutes while we landed. Turns out she watches Cooking for Real and she's very, very nice! I'm not saying it because she watches though, you can just tell from chatting with some people that it's all about the passion and not the ego of the whole thing. She's such a hard worker and has great things on the horizon. Nice to get a seat next to her and spread some smiles. Now I'm home and back to work! Tomorrow, I leave for a quick tour of Publix grocery stores in Florida and Georgia for some cooking classes I'm hosting. Yep, right back to Florida and I can't wait! Gonna see if I can get people Cooking for Real on the road! In the meantime, here are the rest of my pics ...

Back stage in the green room for the cooking demonstrations I caught a show being taped for Food Network. Can you guess which one??
I know you see Pat Neely in the background, but the crew is there to tape Ace of Cakes! Looks like they'll have an episode following the team to the festival and watching what happens when they take the stage for the cooking demonstration. After they cleared out and went on stage, look who got off stage and made their first stop the green room to relax ...
That's actually my first time chatting with Paula Deen! We've met very briefly, but she is always so busy and surrounded by friends and family that it's hard to chat. She is just as sweet as you can imagine though and after I told her about specific shows of hers I loved and how I can be brought to tears just by her tearing up over food ... she invited me on her show! I immediately said yes and I look forward to pulling all the loose ends together now that I'm home. If you would have told me a few years ago Paula would ask me to be on the her show, I would've exploded lol. It's neat to me that she comes on right before me on Saturdays too. A great lead-in as the TV people say! I just totally respect her path in life and it wasn't an easy path to where she is now, I'm happy all her efforts payed off. Ok, then I went back out to the fairway area and chatted it up with some more people at the Viva Towels Booth ...

The camera man behind me is shooting video for an internal Food Network video they'll use to showcase at the cable network up fronts. Ever hear of those? More on that later ... back to Miami! You can tell by looking at the different outfits in the pictures that it wasn't super warm down on South Beach, but it wasn't cold either. A very nice middle ground around the mid-70s all weekend was perfect for sipping wine. Last year it was about 20 degrees warmer and there were surely more people stumbling out than walking out. Heat just magnifies everything. Take a look at the tents on Saturday ...
I have to tell ya, it seems impossible to power through all of the vendors in one day and because of that many people bought tickets for the entire weekend. Wanna know the price of that?? Check Jacob's blog ... the saving grace for the ticket prices is the charity attached. Young culinary students get grants for school in exchange for working at the events. Pretty cool and each student I spoke with was super excited to not only get the grant, but to work side by side with people in an industry they plan to join. Here's someone I worked with side by side before I got on Food Network ...
Back then I was a radio DJ that catered for music industry even and he was ... well, Emeril Lagasse! Nuff said! He gave me my start here on Food Network when I cooked with him on Emeril Live back in 05 and every time I get to give him a hug ... I take it. He has a new cooking show on the way he told me about and I can't wait to see it. After I said hi to him, I let him get back to work. He was signing cookbooks and taking pictures for what seems like forever. I made that the last stop for the day and headed back to my hotel. Just as I was walking up to my room I caught a store in the lobby I didn't remember seeing last year. I think I'd remember seeing these huuuuuuuuge cupcakes. Or are they mini cakes???!!!
Well, it's not all about cupcakes ... the place is called SoBe Scoops and I tasted the purple flavor in the top right. It was raspberry chocolate and then I tried the cookies and cream, the peanut butter and then settled on not ice cream, but a 100 Grand bar, a Kit Kat and a bag of Poppycock popcorn - Pecan lovers.
Here's store manager Gianna and coworker Ebonique. Thanks for letting me sample waaaay too much ice cream ladies!

Here's a wide shot of the store ...
Colorful and inviting, eh? They've only been open a few months and I think it's a smart store for a hotel lobby. I always need a sweet note at the end of a meal and how many Key Lime pie slices can you eat? :-) Well, I could actually eat many so that's a bad example, but you feel me. Ok .... that was Saturday.

The next day, I started the same ... at the Viva Booth. Only this time I met the winner of the Viva sweepstakes! Take a look!
That's Randy and his wife. they both entered to win and Randy was the lucky one. They got a year's supply of Viva Towels and a trip down to the festival to hang out. I actually met them Friday night at the Bubbles&Q party so by time we took this picture ...we were old friends :-). I kept telling everyone they were the winners because don't you always wonder IF there are winners of those things?? We had a good time chatting and hanging out. Right after we took this we both had to head back to the hotel so we hopped in golf carts and sped off. Randy and his wife were headed home and I was checking into another hotel to lengthen my stay in Miami. My first order of biz was a quick birthday hello to one of the reader's of this blog ...
That's Heather, aka "Dolphinfanhq" on blog comments. I put the call out for bloggers that wanted to meet up while I was in town and she replied, so we met and hung out for a few minutes before I headed off to a meeting. I also met "reyna" that Sunday night at Guy's party. What a nice surprise that was!! The weekend was almost over and I hadn't really hung out with my bloggin buddy Jacob so I invited him over for a Monday brunch on my patio along with a couple other friends. Here he is right before he headed off for the airport ...
We're smiling cuz we made it through the weekend with out a hitch and we are full. Just look at my plate ...
Well, that's it! All my stuff to share from the weekend! Catch me tomorrow night on Best Thing I Ever Ate - Guilty Pleasures @10 pm ET. I won't ruin it, but mine is from New Orleans ... home of the guilty pleasure if you ask me :-).

SoBe it! 2010 - Final Shots ...

Hey there! Well, I took a day off blogging only because things got to be so busy I couldn't handle it, so I'm what I call Putt-Putt-in' along :-) ...

To make things easier on the both of us, I'm still going to try to keep it short and to the point ...

Did I tell you I rep Brooklyn!!!???? Well, I do and the most asked question of the weekend was where I live or where I'm from. I like the second question because I get to talk about moving around growing up as an Army Brat. I wear the badge on my sleeve proudly and like to talk about it because there's plenty of bad that came with that good and I'm happy I adjusted to it.

That's me on the way to the Grand Tasting tent Saturday to meet and greet foodies in the Viva tent. I mentioned in the previous post that I forgot to take a picture of the set up because I was just having too much fun so ...

There it is ... my office on the beach for four days. See that woman's plate? That's from Paula Deen's tent! It's was fried fish that smelled sooooo good with a side salad. I was in a good neighborhood to have her next door, eh?! After I hung out at my tent ... I again made the mad dash to the Grand Tasting area so I could get a look at what was to offer and have a bite to eat. I stopped many places, but I grazed like a cow here ...

They were making teeny quesadilla discs and then what I was really into were the plantain chips. They were perfectly salty, crisp and they sliced them lengthwise so they were long and some were flat and a few fried curled up. So, it was a nice texture thing. It was from a place called ...

Right next to us Paula Deen was on stage, so I stopped in and watched for a minute...

After catching Paula and her hubby make the crowd roar with laughter I ran into the couple I call "The Cosby's 2010" ...

Just minutes after we took this picture they went on to a packed house!

Recognize this funny guy below?

Well, besides being a funny guy, he's also what appears to be a great chef ... I say that only because I watched him, but have never had his food. That being said, what I saw ... looked delicious. He's Fabio from Top Chef season 5. I thought he was really nice in person and I figured it would be that way from watching the show, but you never know. Nice guy. Ok, more pics later ....