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This Sunday, I volunteered for the PastryScoop.com pastry conference. This is my third year doing it and it’s always a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my camera died the night before, so I didn’t get any shots of the event. I got to sit in on a CocoaVino wine & chocolate pairing, which was interesting. The women from CocoaVino are not only smart and use only top organic ingredients (Ronnybrook cream & Green & Black’s chocolate) they know so much about the process of making chocolate, tempering, etc. I appreciate when people know their sh*t.

I also sat in on Richard Bies’ class (David Burke and Donatella’s pastry chef). He is a terrific chef and was actually very sweet and funny. He might be my new chef crush. Bies’ antithesis (personality-wise), Sam Mason, was also teaching a class. He is so arrogant, but to be fair he very good and has somewhat earned the right to be a douche. Johnny Iuzzini, James Beard award-winning pastry chef, was sitting in the front row of Mason’s class. They were bantering the whole time, which was quite irritating since a class full people were there to hear what Mason had to say about food, not to listen to him joke with a buddy. What was even more disturbing were the sycophantic food groupies hanging on every word and laughing too emphatically for every joke. Uck. Maybe it was the hangover or the lack of sleep, but it really irked me.