Vera Devera - GhetSF

While working at Recchiuti at the Ferry Building this past Saturday, I ran into Katie Christ a food stylist who's worked on many of my company's (Anthem) food photography shoots for Safeway. I had just happened to see her on the Food Network the previous week, for her competition in the Food Network Challenge Superstar Food Stylist 2008 in Miami, Florida.

The first challenge was to style ice cream sundaes. Katie worked masterfully as her competitors arranged their sundaes, from tropical to zany crab. The judges liked Katie's straightforward and classic sundae styling.

The second challenge, a surprise pasta recipe, Katie struggled to get her pasta cooked within the time allotted. One stylist, from Vancouver, added a bit of whipped cream to make his sauce look creamier. Another stylist got dinged for making his Italian pasta look "Asian" when he crossed two strands of chives as garnish. The other female challenger, from LA, struggled with in last place. Katie barely got her pasta dish on the plate (seconds from countdown) and although she spent very little time actually styling her plate, she won again for the "natural" look her composition attained!

The third and final challenge was to create a dinner spread for a beach wedding. The Vancouver stylist went with his Asian sensibility and created a grand, tropical buffet featuring dim sum. The LA stylist went a more whimsical route by dumping brown sugar on her table and adorning the table with seafood (even going as far as coloring in the tips of the lobster and crab claws "for authenticity"). I adored Katie's elegant style - a white tablecloth, beautiful flowers and a refined and edited menu that highlighted seasonal foods. The judges were a bit concerned that Katie's table was light on food and heavy on the tablescape, however she prevailed yet again, taking the $10,000 grand prize!

When Katie won, I felt like we (Anthem) had won too in a way! Her work is outstanding, and you can see it at your local grocery store. Super cool.

Woo-hoo, me and fellow Ghetto Gourmette (Jen B.) got to participate in a Food Network filming. The stage was The Cannery and the show was Bobby Flay's Throwdown -- against Gerard Nebesky, Southern California's king of paella.

Being the Food Network groupie that I am, I was thrilled to be part of the audience, in second row watching the 2 chefs battle against each other. Gerard had a giant paella pan that he let boil the whole time whereas Bobby Flay's smaller paella pan seemed only to steam. A self-taught chef, Gerard added ingredients such as garbanzo beans, Meyer lemon, baby octopus, white shrimp, green beans and short-grained Calrose rice to his paella. On the other hand, Bobby Flay, celebrity chef (Iron Chef America and Boy Meets Grill) went with lobster, green peas, chicken and chorizo in his dish.

When the film crew asked me to comment on Bobby Flay's versus Gerard's dish, I had to admit I much preferred Gerard's sweeter version of paella - not only because the Meyer lemon lent sweetness, but because the shellfish was juicy, sweet and not too fishy at all.

The judges were the owner of the Spanish Table and the native Spanish chef/owner of B44 Catalan Restaurant in San Francisco. To find out who won the Throwdown, tune into the Food Network in mid-June!! More picts here.