December 27, 2007 3:16 PM
BY: DIANE SUSTENDAL
A New Yorker recently said to me, “New Orleans will never die. The food’s too good.”
I think he’s totally right … not that we don’t have great architecture, artists, music, businesses, and a lot of soul. And our chefs and their restaurants are popping up with honors, ideas and philanthropic efforts.
Birthday Girl Molly Ryan
At Galatoire’s, those coveted tables on the Friday before Christmas raised $40,000 for the Louisiana Children’s Museum and the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans Habitat for Humanity’s Musician’s Village. Everyone from René Fransen, Ed Bonin and Al Gooch to the Jimmy Roddys waved paddles as expert auctioneer Ruthie Winston moved the bidding at a rapid clip. Shamarr Allen’s trumpet and Veuve Clicquot warmed up the waving arms. There with thanks for the efforts were Julia Bland of the Louisiana Children’s Museum and Ellis Marsalis. Oh, and if you missed it, Galatoire’s will do it again on Jan. 16 for the Friday before Mardi Gras. The beneficiaries will be the LA/SPCA and Cops 8. Get your wallets out!
In the Christmas spirit, chef Duke LoCicero of Café Giovanni donned a Santa suit and distributed toys to kids at Children’s and Tulane hospitals for seasonal cheer. The toys were collected at his annual holiday party where wife Patty played co-host and Eric Paulsen did the auction honors, while the president of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, Greg Reggio of Semolina and Zea, urged bidders on.
Alexandra Stafford (center) with Christmas elves at Alliance Francaise’s “Le Noel des Enfants.”
No auction, but lots of applause at this magazine’s sister publication New Orleans Magazine’s “4th annual Chef’s Celebration” at Muriel’s. Champagne flowed and spirits were high as John Besh added to his long list of accolades, cropping “Chef of the Year” and in turn congratulating chef Jared Tees of Lüke for “Best New Restaurant.” (Lüke happens to be another of Besh’s local eateries.) Other honorees include: “Best New Chef” Stephen Stryjewski of Cochon, “Best Pastry Chef” Tariq Hanna of Sucré, “Best Bartender” Garth Swanson of Clancy’s, “Best Specialty Shop” St. James Cheese Company, and “Best New Cookbook,” chef Susan Spicer’s “Crescent City Cooking.”
Lots of talk about Argentina, everyone from Myra Menville to Bruce Wallis and Virginia Miller have tango-ed and tasted the grape at an on-going celebration at the Rib Room. Know that slow-food movement? The one that has dishes everyone loves and no one has time to make? Yours truly has been savoring the braised short ribs in Malbec. I tried to con recipes out of chef Anthony Spizale—didn’t get any, but extracted a promise of a few rounds of clays at High-Point, where the Beretta and Purdey bunch meet to hone their shooting skills. Chef Spizale, chef Besh says he’ll cook ‘em if you shoot ‘em. Game on.
Emeril’s restaurants and five-star Woodlands Inn chef Tarver King joined forces for one of the fanciest business bashes of late at Latrobe’s. The very glamorous fuss was over the partnership of Angelo Farrell and Lee Laporte with Sheila C. Johnson, who
happens to be a part owner of the WNBA Washington Mystics and the NHL Washington Capitals—and you thought women didn’t like sports? This threesome will resurrect a circa 1892 building and open an elegant condominium-hotel—the Royal Cosmopolitan—under the Salamander Hospitality development banner. The food and flowers were lavish, even impressing types like hospitality maven Bonnie Boyd, developer Mike Valentino, Jimmy Fitzmorris, Coleman Adler, Tiffany Adler, plus Andre and David Rubenstein, all on hand for the elaborate affair.
Angelo Farrell, Salamander Hospitality’s Sheila C. Johnson, Salamander president Prem Devadas and Lee Laporte.
Speaking of the Rubensteins, do congratulate them: the eponymous store has been tapped as the winner of the “First Annual Independent Retailer of the Year” presented by DNR, the New York-based bible of the men’s apparel industry (sister publications are WWD and W … if you don’t know what they are, I give up). The brothers Rubenstein picked up their award at the Four Seasons in NYC and in the crowd were Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier, Ermenegildo Zegna, and Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Fashionable company, I’d say.
For the younger set there were parties galore … at a “Le Noel des Enfants” Santa’s helpers wore elf hats and tried to keep the tree-trimmers, hot-chocolate drinkers, and bûche de Noël eaters contained in French and English. Christine Le Blanc, Agnes Baysse, Valerie Bonmardion and Alexandra Stafford scooted the sugar-saturated merrymakers in and out at the Alliance Francaise headquarters with cries of “Allez” and “Mais, non!”
Jimmy and Tia Roddy were among the winning bidders for a table at Galatoire’s for the Friday before Christmas.
La Boulangerie’s very proper Yule log got kudos.
No bûche de Noël at Molly Ryan’s proper birthday tea hosted by her grandmere Mme. Harold Treleven at the Andrew Jackson. Mini-quiches, cookies, sandwiches, cakes and tea, of course, were a civilized way to say goodbye to the ‘tweens. Molly, surrounded by her McGehee’s classmates, sang, giggled and seemed quite grown-up for 13-year-olds. Twin brother, Mason, opted out to celebrate with the guys.
Is it Twelfth Night already? Carnival or not, book that plane ticket and head on up to NYC for the Preservation Resource Center’s Gotham gala, “Heart and Soul,” on Jan. 17. If you go, you can double-dip: hit the PRC benefit and the Winter Antiques Show, which opens the next day. No rain, sleet or snow keeps intrepid New Yorkers
or Orleanians at bay.