Event Stories

I am an Olympic junkie.  Trying to watch every moment on television, and last night was no exception.  I watched as the Canadian figure skater took to the ice after losing her mother earlier to a heart attack.  As I watched, I thought to myself; didn’t she know that she had a heart condition?  Did she not get screened properly (if at all)?

All of this emotion brought me back to last Wednesday during the annual Woman’s Day Red Dress Awards held at The Allen Room in Frederick P. Rose Hall Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Caramel corn served as a cocktail.  Peanut butter transformed into powder.  Food concoctions so unexpected and interesting, that ingesting them could hardly be described as “eating” but rather “experiencing.”  The evening began with a cinnamon colored beverage served in a test tube.  It seemed to proclaim, “Drink Me,” and so I did.   I have fallen down the rabbit hole and into Elements.

What better way to start the holiday season but with a lovely latke festival?  Our festival took the form of a Latke Cook-Off pitting 4 Great Performances chefs against each other to win the people’s choice award – hosted in our 4,000 sq ft professional kitchen in Hudson Square.

The simple potato pancake was a media star.  The competition, featured last week on Urban Daddy, established Latke’s credibility as a gourmet attraction for 2009.  Florence Fabricant listed the evening on her weekly NYTimes calendar.  On the day of, WPIX arrived at 5 AM to film a series of four live segments which aired every hour; and 12 hours later, NBC featured the festivities once again.

I moved to New York City over 6 years ago with every intention of getting a dog.  I settled in Tudor City – affectionately known as “Two-Dog City” with more dogs per capita than any neighborhood in NYC.  But of course, a 300 square foot apartment coupled with an Event Planner’s lifestyle has left me dog-less over the years.  I now have to get my puppy fix any way I can.  Hanging out with my friend’s pugs, going to dog runs (which sometimes can be a little awkward without a dog of my own), and of course the “can I please pet your dog on the street?”.

So, when I got the call to host the Animal Medical Center’s annual Top Dog Gala Fundraiser at Jazz at Lincoln Center, I was overjoyed with puppy love!  I was just as excited to create fun and clever ways to incorporate the theme on a culinary level, and I knew just the thing - dog bone-shaped biscuits made with black pepper thyme for the bread basket, and cookies in the shape of dogs and cats that we incorporated into the dessert!  Sometimes it’s challenging to come up with clever  ideas to put a new twist on a traditional seated dinner at a low cost, but just a few touches like these make such an impact, even for the most sophisticated New York City party goers.

November 20, 2009:  Berlin, Germany

I am in Berlin researching an upcoming trip for one of my longtime clients. Berlin is an amazing city that is more of an ideal than a location.  It truly is an enlightened place where thoughts meet art and art meets life in dizzying and delightful speed. It actually reminds me of SOHO in New York during the late 1970’s when music, art, performance and politics made New York one of the most exciting cities in the world….attracting people from all over who wanted to be a part of it.  I got my start back then and remember the exhilarating feeling I got after a heated philosophy/political conversation/argument over a glass of wine on West Broadway. Yesterday I met with five people from an organization called “Zeit Zeugen Börse Berlin”, or “Centre for Witnesses to Contemporary History”.

One of my favorite events of the year is the Prospect Park Alliance Ball.  This event happens right next to the Carousel in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.  A fundraiser for everything Prospect Park related, it’s usually attended by over 500 guests.  It’s a unique experience to attend a black tie gala with an opportunity to ride the carousel!