WHITE HOUSE LOVIN'

I would like to say right here, on the record, that yesterday, Monday April 13, 2009, will go down in history as one of the best days of my life. I was fortunate
enough to be part of The White House Easter Egg Roll, doing a healthy-food cooking demo for kids, an endeavor I originally thought was "pretty cool," but hardly realized how AWESOME it was going to be.

For one, I figured I'd maybe get a glimpse of Obama, just a glimpse. Instead, I was within feet of the First Family as they greeted the thousands of guests to their lawn and kicked off the Easter Egg Roll. It was actually one of the coolest experiences, I mean they were just so warm, nice, funny. At one point, the mic wasn't working and Prez Obama started talking into the bunny's ear, using it as a mic, I mean the kids we're loving that! When Fergie sang The Star Spangled banner standing in the middle of them, it sent shivers down my spine. Sasha and Malia are absolute gems. I don't care if I sound over-the-top, I'm totally nuts over this family!



My cooking demo, if I may say so myself, went amazing. What a great idea to incorporate healthy cooking tips during the day so people can take some practical tips home with them on how to cook for their family. The kids weren't all that interested in my theories on avocados- and who could blame them. After all, I might be Spike, but they longed for The Easter Bunny! The best part was the helpers I got to come on stage and cook with me - classic funny kids moments. We made turkey burgers, recipe from the restaurant, and I think the kids loved mushing up avocado and playing (making patties) with the ground turkey. At one demo I had two kids who considered themselves "pros" and I was thinking of signing them up for the restaurant, if only they were older than eight!

Throughout the day Fergie-Ferg-Fergalicious was performing at the other end of the
lawn, Art Smith was kickin' around, Ziggy Marley was making the rounds - it was a huge honor being in such good company. Definitely a major PINCH ME day.

Now, back to reality where I'm flipping Obama burgers instead of possibly high-fiveing with the man himself. Oh, have I mentioned how much I like him?

Lovn' the White House,
Spike

BEST CHEFS PARTY

Food & Wine Party... Ok there is not one word above that I don't absolutely LOVE (Food. Wine. Party.). So, you can imagine how much fun I had at this year's
Best Chefs of '09 Bash, given by Food n Wine Magazine in NYC.

I Amtrak'ed it down for the night, and had a blast reconnecting with old friends, and picking the brains of some new chefs that I've always wanted to meet. Late night I met up with Andrew (my Top Chef partner in crime) at The Spotted Pig. He was his usual boring self... a total snooze. Haha, AS IF. But first - the party and my line skipping photos..i was caught!



My favorite person there? Probably a tie between Gail Simmons (she's SO nice and SO beautiful) and Josh Ozersky (he writes The Feedbag Blog, a total genius and absolute trip). I'd be lying if I didn't get all excited over chillin' with Katy Lee Joel, doing our restaurant talk thing! Tom Colicchio, was on crutches but still the coolest dude in the house. Also Nikki Cascone was there - she's an incredible person and a close friend. I hope everyone visits her at 24PRINCE in NYC (promise?). Oh, least I forget the biggest trip of all - FABIO was making the rounds, complete with his bombshell wife and big, bright smile. He's a real ham, that one, but I honestly can't say I don't like the guy.

After catching up with everyone, I walked around with some friends, sampled some stellar food and some not so stellar food. Stephanie Izzard's scallops were the star of the night. Yeah, yeah, insert the scallop jokes here.

Scott Conant served some delish TK from Scarpetta. I'm really impressed by him in general, nice guy, super-talented chef (but you don't need ME to tell you that, just
read The New York Times). I saw Harold from Top Chef, who's a perfectly nice guy, but sooooo shy - he needs to live it up more! Chefs are the new Rockstars, yo!!

We danced for a while, getting down n dirty with god-knows-who, at one point I think Rocco DiSpirito was trying to grind with me. That's probably when I realized it was time to take off. I hung out with some peeps at Nobu and then my bud Nick and I proceeded to party on with Andrew at The Spotted Pig where I will shamelessly admit, there was some sort of cat fight over me and Andrew. Meow! And we'll end there!

Love 'n cat fights,
Spike