Aspen
When Harold Dieterle won Bravo’s “Top Chef” title last month, he got $100,000 and a trip to the Aspen Food & Wine Classic.
On Sunday morning, he aimed his cooking guns at the festival’s closing event, the Classic Cook-off. Hundreds of people shoehorned into the ballroom of the St. Regis to watch Dieterle and his sous chef, “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio, bang their pots and pans against longtime TV cooker Jacques Pepin and his cooking pal Jean-Claude Szurdak and son-in-law Rollie Wesen. Ingredients included liver and Cap’n Crunch cereal.
“It’s good to flip the roles around,” said Dieterle of his judge turned assistant, Colicchio. “I told him to bring his running shoes. … This should be a lot of fun.”
Fun, yes, but they lost the contest to Pepin & Co.
In the second round, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, a.k.a. Meadow on “The Sopranos,” assisted star chef Jose Andres.
Sigler is in Aspen helping Cointreau make upscale margaritas in the Grand Tasting Tent. It was evident she had little experience as a bartender – and she told me she had even less talent as a cook. “I have no cooking experience at all. I just need to be told what to do.”
They lost the contest to chef Ming Tsai and steak baron Robert Hatoff, CEO at Allen Bros., who anted up $6,000 at a charity auction to become the sous chef.
After much high jinks, including a kiss on the mouth from Andres to Tsai, Tsai’s team won.
Stop by the house
In what is probably a new trend, Champagne Mumm rented a giant house two blocks from the tents and opened it to VIPs. They screened movies, served caviar and truffle popcorn, and offered up free spa treatments.
Tasting notes
The place to eat Saturday night at the Classic was Matsuhisa. In addition to Nobu Matsuhisa himself, the diners included Danny Meyer, Susan Goin, Giada De Laurentiis, Marcus Samuelsson, Drew Nieporent, Wolfgang Puck and Cheesecake Factory big Howard Gordon.
Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse skipped the party to cook for their joined families in a condo, probably the best meal in town all weekend.
