Every once in awhile, you get the opportunity to participate in something so astronomically awesome that you think that the organizers must have invited you by accident. You are not this cool. You have never been this cool. You may never be this cool again. Be careful not to trip or they may notice that you never should have been invited in the first place. And so went my evening at the Citymeals-on-Wheels Silver Spoons benefit honoring 25 years of James Beard award winning chefs.

The lovely folks at Foodbuzz and Nature’s Pride Bread invited me to attend a once-in-a-lifetime event and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. Surrounding what usually is the ice rink at Rockafeller Plaza were individual booths serving up the dishes of nearly 60 name dropping-worthy celebrity chefs. Waxman. Palmer. Puck. Boulud. Georges. English. Nobu. Need I say more?

Things I Learned from the Citymeals-on-Wheels Silver Spoons Benefit:

1.  Jonathan Waxman is even more cuddly looking in person.

2. Daniel Boulud and Woflgang Puck are nearly the same height … and share the award for Most Adorable Chef I Would Like to Carry Around in My Pocket.

3.  You can’t build a restaurant empire (including airport express options) and conquer the frozen food aisle without being a truly talented chef, which Wolfgang Puck proved yet again with his duck breast bao bun.  It was a dish that left me truly speechless.

4.  Todd English is dreamy in a Clark Gable kinda way that makes you want to follow him around for hours.

5.  Gael Greene does go out in public without wearing a hat.  And she is far more beautiful in person.

6.  You can use bread to make the topping for a strawberry rubarb crumble.  Bread?  For a crumble?  Who would have thought! Claudia Flemming of the North Fork Table and Inn, apparently. Amazing.  I may or may not have had two servings of said crumble.

6.  Gail Simmons is radiantly beautiful and not a stick figure.  Which is a compliment.

7.  People are crazy about their pork belly.  You should have seen the line for the pork belly sandwich from Primo!  To be fair, the sandwich was drool-worthy enough to make me consider a trip up to Maine to get another one.

8. Mark Peel makes an almond ice cream with sauteed cherries so good you may find yourself slurping the last drops from the bottom of the bowl. And then crying because there is no more. It’s that darn good.

9.  If you are a celebrity chef groupie, you must start saving now to buy your tickets to this amazing event next year.  Beg, borrow or steal to get yourself there.  You will thank me later.  Plus you can sleep at night knowing that your chunk of change went to a great cause to bring meals to folks who don’t have the luxury of cooking for themselves.

My camera was on the fritz so I didn’t get too many food porn shots for your viewing pleasure, or perhaps I was too busy stuffing my face with said food porn to take a photo … either way … check out the recaps from these amazing bloggers for more scrumptious photos!

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