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Foodie travel: NYC’s Great Gathering of the Chefs

Extras, New York City — By on October 29, 2009 at 6:00 am

by Molly Fergus
LG Travel News Editor

Anyone who plans vacations around food must consider booking a trip to NYC for the 2010 “Great Gathering of the Chefs,” an annual charity event that easily offers the best bang for your time when it comes to sampling the city’s top eats.

I eagerly accepted a media invite to the fifth annual event last week, where 20 local restaurants set up stands with small bites of signature items. The food ranged from Blue Smoke’s quirky peanut butter, jalapeño and braised pork belly sandwich to the Russian Team Room’s decadent lobster bisque and caviar.

Red and white wine pairings peppered the table, and dessert stretched across a third of the room. Kyotofu served its award-winning miso brownie, Ricard Chocolat offered a fresh mint infused ganache, and Dovetail concocted a peanut butter and jelly bread pudding. For me, a carrot cake macaroon with a cream cheese filling from Aureole easily, well, took the cake.

Still, the event’s undertone was bittersweet. The event honored Gourmet magazine, the nearly 70-year-old culinary publication that Condé Nast shuttered this month as part of company-wide cuts. Three former staffers attended the event to accept the Golden Fork Award, a plaque honoring the magazine for its contributions to the culinary field.

If you’re interested in attending the event next year, start planning now. A limited number of tickets go on sale for the tasting, which cost $150 this year, and all proceeds went to charity. Just one word of advice: Schedule some food-coma recovery time into your trip!

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