I’m so excited for my buddy Chef Mark! Today is the day he and his chef buddies (Jaime Ortiz from Angelo’s 677 Prime, Larry Schepici from Tosca, and Jackie Baldwin Russell from Sage Dining Hall at RPI) are cooking for a dinner at the James Beard House in NYC. It’s called Upstate in the Big Apple, and it’s the culiminating event in the team’s 4×4 Dinners series, “a gathering of 4 of the top chefs in the area creating 4 fabulous dinners paired with 4 great wines at 4 phenomenal restaurants” (it all happened this summer). Here’s the team:
So, today’s the day they all get to cook for about 80 guests at the James Beard House, a vertitable Mecca for gastronomes.
Mark left at about 8 this morning, and sent me a few photos when he got there:
Can’t wait to hear how it went! Best of luck to all of the Capital Region chefs in NYC tonight – show ’em what you’ve got!
Life at Goal 
Ooh. I went there a few years ago as part of the PR team for an event HHA was doing there. It was so, so cool… and all of the chefs were so excited to be part of it. I am sure Mark must be thrilled. Please give him my congratulations.