The New York Culinary Experience Private Dinner Honoring David Bouley

June 22, 2015

At the risk of sounding like a giddy school girl throughout this post, I have to say that a super amazing and very satisfying part of my job at Banfi is helping pair great wines with delicious food. Even better if I get to drink those wines and eat those foods. And the best if I also get to teach people about what we are drinking and how the wine pairs so tastily with dishes.

Perhaps in the zenith of all these good things, our team at Banfi recently partnered with the New York Culinary Experience for the second year in a row. If you’re not familiar with The New York Culinary Experience, it’s aptly called a “Fantasy Camp for Foodies.” It’s a weekend sponsored by New York Magazine and hosted in International Culinary Center’s state-of-the-art kitchens in Soho, where over 30 of the world’s most renowned chefs teach hands-on classes with an intimate group of enthusiastic food-lovers.

As part of this experience – and it truly is an experience – attendees can also (try to) get tickets to a special private dinner on Saturday night, hosted at Bouley Test Kitchen. This year the dinner honored Chef David Bouley and his influence in the culinary world. David, along with chefs who have worked with him throughout the years, prepared a seven-course culinary dream highlighted by seven specially selected Banfi wines that my colleague Joe and I carefully chose.

The chefs for the evening included: David Bouley of flagship, Bouley; Alexander Grunert of Brooklyn Fare; Bill Yosses, former White House executive pastry chef and coauthor of Desserts for Dummies; Galen Zamarra of Almanac in the West Village; and Bruno Verjus of Table in Paris.

I mostly sat doe-eyed and pinching myself as this parade of beautiful dishes came out. Fortunately for everyone (and especially me since I was presenting about the wines), all pairings worked extremely well. Standouts included asparagus with Principessa Gavia Gavi, Maine lobster alongside slightly rich but freshly tropical Ferdi, and, not surprisingly, beef with the much-lauded 2010 Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino. The full menu with pairings is below, along with some mouthwatering photos from the dinner.

Definitely stay tuned for details and scheduling for next year’s NYCE weekend…and if you have a chance, please join us! Although, no guarantees that you won’t be giddy and gushing about it months later too.