New York City Wine & Food Festival Day 1 Highlights

Meatball Madness - Image Source Giada's Twitter

Last night was the first night of the New York City Wine & Food Festival and the big events of the night were the Meatball Madness event hosted by Giada De Laurentiis, and the Roast of Anthony Bourdain. 

The Meatball Madness event was judged by Anne Burrell and Geoffrey Zakarian, who chose the judges winner.  There was also a People's Choice award for the crowd's favorite meatball.  The People's Choice award ended up going to Donatella Arpaia, who you probably recognize as a frequent judge on Iron Chef America.  The judges award went to the restaurant L'Apicio, which is a restaurant that hasn't even opened, but is scheduled to open in several weeks. 

The Roast of Anthony Bourdain was probably the most anticipated event due to the amount of chefs and celebrities that were scheduled to be there, such as Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri.  Here are some of the more popular jokes from the event:


Mario Batali Insults:

• "If you give Mario Batali a BJ, he'll actually lend you his scrunchie to pull your hair back." - Rachael Ray
• "He loves olive oil because that's how he gets in and out of his car." - Bonnie McFarlane

Guy Fieri Insults:

• "I think he wears his sunglasses backwards so people will get confused and won't punch him in the face." - Bonnie McFarlane
• "In case you're wondering why Guy Fieri is here, he won a contest." - Mario Batali
• "His relatives come from the only part of Italy that's never been exposed to food." - Mario Batali

Anthony Bourdain Insults:

• "You're combining cooking, TV, and comedy without actually being good at any of them? That is a real gift." - Guy Fieri
• "Anthony, is there anything you can't do? I mean, besides cook?" - Bonnie McFarlane 

 For some more quotes and highlights of the event, the Huffington Post has a good article covering it (somewhat NSFW.)