Chef's Best Recap

Last night was Chef's Best, and while I didn't have the stomach capacity to sample every dish, there were a few standouts among the plates I tried.

Georgia Brown's low country lobster and grits were delicious, and Posh's chicken and waffles were something different for these kinds of events. Lebanese Taverna served lamb skewers and a wedge of pita in a mini-martini glass filled with hummus. On the sweet side, I loved Hello Cupcake's mini cupcakes, Art and Soul's lemon pound cake "baby cakes," and Nage's cayenne and sea salt truffles.

But stealing the show was Inn at Little Washington's Patrick O'Connell. He called his table "Heaven's Kitchen," and there were oysters on the half shell topped with cucumber salsa and cucumber sorbet and then cocktail sauce and cocktail sauce sorbet. Everyone was dressed like nuns, and O'Connell was dressed as the pope. At the end of the table he had everyone kneel down (as if receiving communion) and he fed you paper thin potato wafers with caviar in the middle. So delicious and a reminder that I've been wanting to go out for oysters for awhile.