It's a blessing being the CEO of a company that has the word wine in the name. A blessing because of all the wonderful people we've met who love the things that we love - food, wine, travel. Sometimes, however, it completely overwhelms us how many events there are in LA that are related to food and wine promotion - it's a full time job just keeping up with what's new, what will be of interest to our members and what will make great stories.
So imagine our delight when we received an invitation to attend the prestigious launch of the new Michelin Guide to Los Angeles at Les Deux Cafe - home of the hipster. We starved ourselves all day in anticipation of the delicacies that might be served to this crowd of foodies and arrived on time - a rarity for Angelenos.
The winners of the ever-elusive 'stars' had been either accidentally or mistakenly released through the LA Times a few days before so we all knew in advance who the winners were and we were also excited to see those famous chefs who were going to be in attendance. The list was already causing endless dinner conversation over who was chosen, were the ratings for our favorites in sync with our own opinion, who might have been overlooked, etc. so the crowd was abuzz when we arrived on this star lit night.
And then in a flash, it was over. Not even an hour after we arrived, a announcement was made thanking all for attending and congratulating the winners (who were not named in the presentation), books were handed out and we were back in our car heading home for some leftovers.
Yes, there was food. Mini pots of crab macaroni and cheese, little kobe burgers, a stick or two of chicken and a bit of spicy shrimp. I had two or three bites from the sexy servers (each tray had between 3-7 pieces of passed food on them).
So much for starving ourselves - the glutton in us had been seriously let down by our fantasy of being fed by the Michelin chefs - and instead what we got was a press conference and a quick snack.
Is there a lesson to be learned from this? Yes absolutely. That even the most jaded foodie can be swept away by memories of eating in Michelin restaurants throughout Italy and France in our first trips to Europe.
We're still pouring over the knives and forks and stars in the guide. Some we agree with and some not.
But from reading other blogs from those who attended this event we do know one thing - we're not the only ones who fantasized about a fabulous evening of culinary delights that might be bestowed on the mere mortals in attendance.
Maybe when we RSVP to future events we should start asking, "should we dine beforehand"?
Wishing you a Michelin starred Thanksgiving.
Julie
