OutFront on the Town: Bon Appétit's Hot Ten Party

Thursday night Bon Appétit and Warby Parker hosted a major fete to honor the top dishes from the “Hot 10” chefs featured in Bon Appétit's September restaurant issue and to kick off New York Fashion Week. The event space in downtown Manhattan was a five-story-exposed-brick-loft-townhouse with an indoor pool and for the evening it was transformed into a fun house of food. Each level had culinary delights more and more exotic from the newly anointed top chefs who were flown in for the occasion.

Among the most soulful dishes was a dry-aged porterhouse steak from Austin’s Jeffrey’s and Josephine House served by a strapping young lad in a white jacket in the venue’s cozy library area. Across from the steak and in front of the pool was a dangerous Mad Men-esque martini cart.

One floor up was a dark and noisy jam-packed room with bright images of food (think ironic giant prawns) projected on the back wall. A chef’s kitchen with Chicago joint Fat Rice’s signature arroz gordo or “Fat Rice” stole the show.

Full disclosure: Never-have-I-ever eaten Macanese food (Chinese and Portuguese fusion). I especially haven’t served myself steaming “paella” (that I still can’t get out of my head) from a clay pot. The “fragrant Chinese sausage and sofrito scented rice with Portuguese chicken, roast pork, linguiça, salted duck, prawns, tea eggs and littleneck clams” spilled out of my takeout box and I immediately started crying upon first bite. I guess I spooned on too much Ghost Pepper Piri Piri sauce. Fat Rice Chef/Co-owner Abraham Conlon (he’s Portuguese) and Co-owner/General Manager Adrienne Lo (she’s Chinese) were both in attendance and tell OutFront, “As of now there is no plan to bring Fat Rice to New York or elsewhere, but [that’s] not out of the question.”

Follow Jessica Reinis on Twitter: @JessicaReinis.