Miss Tea Makes Her Own Food & Wine Week Schedule

This week was all about food and wine – Miss Tea could’ve planned out the week like a festival if she did enough research on it!

On Saturday (4/4/09), Miss Tea and friend, Bella Italiana, attended a wine seminar at Le Bernardin, hosted by sommelier Aldo Sohm. The topic of the seminar was “Differences Between Champagne, Prosecco, Cava and Sparkling Wines.” Definitely a useful course for Miss Tea on “How to Taste", noting the differences in color, aroma and yes, even the size of those cute bubbles! Miss Tea loved the set up – a U-shaped table for 22 with eight numbered glasses clearly marked at each place setting, along with a seminar pamphlet.

Miss Tea took plenty of notes for future reference. You never know when information like this could come in handy, perhaps at some benefit gala or society brunch or romantic date to fill the lull in conversation…but I digress.

Both Bella Italiana and Miss Tea learned that the handsome Aldo Sohm was from Austria (love his accent). Bella Italiana remarked that he looked more my age than hers, and that Miss Tea should “go for it.” Sigh. As Miss Tea is still single, clearly she has no idea how to “go for it” and managed a timid handshake and a smile instead.

After the seminar, we had a few canapés which were delish! We thanked Aldo for his time and went on our merry way. Yes, Miss Tea did leave Le Bernardin just a tad tipsy. Incidentally, congratulations to Aldo Sohm on his nomination for the Outstanding Wine Service Award 2009 by the James Beard Foundation. Clink-clink!

For dinner, Miss Tea and Bella Italiana went to Estiatorio Milos, a seafood restaurant in Midtown. It’s been awhile, but yes, Miss Tea came back to Milos…only to find the service has slightly been downgraded. She did not appreciate being seated in the corner of the restaurant right next to the bar, nor having to track down a server to order her meal after waiting for 40 minutes. Shambles. If the food wasn’t so enticing, Miss Tea would have walked out (and probably embarrass poor Bella Italiana).

The prix-fixe menu is also a plus, served from 5:00pm – 6:30pm and from 10:00pm – 11:45pm. Miss Tea dined on the grilled octopus, followed by a plate of Greek salad, then the main course of grilled Loup de Mer (a fish from the island of Kephalonia, similar to sea bass) and for dessert, Karidopita, a walnut cake with vanilla ice cream. All this, accompanied by a glass (or two) of the 2008 Malagousia wine (Greek), from the “Mountichas Family” Avantis Estate, Evia. After a nice day of wonderful wine and food, and great company, Miss Tea needed some rest.

Le Bernardin
155 W. 51st St., New York, NY 10019 Between 6th & 7th Avenue
(212) 554-1515 www.le-bernardin.com

Estiatorio Milos
125 W. 55th St., New York, NY 10019 nr. Sixth Ave.
(212) 245-7400 http://milos.ca/

On Wednesday (4/8/09), Miss Tea had the pleasure of meeting one of the newest chefs on the scene – Curtis Stone, Australian chef of the popular reality/cooking show titled, "Take Home Chef". He has released his latest cookbook “Relaxed Cooking” and was at William Sonoma in Chelsea for a booksigning and cooking demo. People Magazine voted him as one of the sexiest men alive and if you haven’t guessed yet, Miss Tea is fan of the sexy men, especially those who can cook. And to those sexy, cooking men who are single – Miss Tea is available.

Miss Tea read about Curtis’ appearance on his web site, www.curtisstone.com, and followed his schedule to NYC and William Sonoma. Luckily, Miss Tea was able to drag another friend, Natasha 98, to the event for moral support…and to humor Miss Tea as her photographer.

We were both pleasantly surprised to be served two tidbits from “Relaxed Cooking” while waiting on line for Curtis to appear. Everyone on line was served a veggie fritter and Eggplant dip with toasted pita bread. Very thoughtful, considering Curtis was late.

I love his accent. I love all accents!

At the event, Miss Tea got to introduce herself to Curtis, shake his hand, take a snug picture with him (he had to come close as Miss Tea is vertically challenged) and have her cookbook signed. Then Curtis asked Miss Tea to stick around for the cooking demo (didn’t know there was one), to which Miss Tea replied instantaneously “Sure!” Curtis could ask anything of Miss Tea and the answer will always be ‘yes’. You hear me Curtis?!

So Miss Tea and Natasha 98 waited (again) in front of the workspace diligently until Curtis was ready to cook, inconspicuously noshing on more pita bread and eggplant dip until the server took it away to serve the other people on line. Oops!

Okay, it’s babaganoush – come on, we all know that’s what it is. Sorry Curtis, that eggplant dip ain’t new.

When Curtis started his demo, he entertained the audience, cracking a few jokes that put everyone at ease – he is quite charismatic. Of course, he had a “very bad cook” helping him (chosen from the audience) as his sous-chef. No joke, she really was bad and didn’t even know how to slice a pickle. Then people got to shout out questions to him, including Miss Tea: Do you plan to open any restaurants in the States?

Curtis: If I did, it would probably be somewhere in LA because I would want to be around so that I could be at the restaurant. Although, I’ve thought about looking for place here in Manhattan. I like it here.

Mind you, Miss Tea is paraphrasing as her memory has gone shoddy in her thirties. And yes, Miss Tea and Curtis are exactly the same age, in case you were wondering.

One unsightly girl with a pancake layer of makeup and uber-gratuitous cleavage stood directly in front of Curtis. Miss Tea does not condone the slutty and flirtatiously offensive. This girl was re-applying her makeup (ugh) and making loud comments about how Curtis is such a “hot chef” to a point that everyone else around was embarrassed for her. And Curtis did not appreciate her banter either, in fact he looked peeved and just started to ignore her altogether. Miss Tea was tempted to ask Curtis, “So how do you handle brazen women who shamelessly throw themselves at you?” But that would’ve started a cat fight (which Miss Tea would’ve won) and Natasha 98 would’ve had to drag me out of the store.

Ladies, please be ladies no matter who you’re drooling over. Desperation is sooooo unattractive.

All in all, it was a lovely evening and Miss Tea left with a big smile on her face. A special shot-out to Natasha 98 for having to endure all this with me. Thank gawd she enjoyed it all.

Later that evening, Miss Tea sat down with a glass of wine (Bigi Orvieto Classico 2006 – a dry wine, great for cooking) and reviewed all her photos and videos from the event.

Miss Tea liked this week – thumbs up!