POSTCARDS FROM PARIS – THE GOURMAND WORLD COOKBOOK AWARDS

By Patti Londre from Worth the Whisk

The Food Stylist's Handbook by Denise Vivaldo won the Gourmand Award for the Best Cookbook Design in the World for Professionals (the certificate says just that), and her book now may bear the prestigious “Best in the World” awards sticker.  How we got to the ceremony is almost world-class in itself.

I have a certain high level of self-confidence. and having now been in Paris approximately 24 hours, “knew everything.”  We had our Metro passes. I waltzed up to the concierge at our hotel, the exclusive Hotel de Crillion, to get the best Metro route to reach the awards. The concierge, somewhat horrified, recommended a taxi for that part of town. “Nonsense, we are from Los Angeles!” and off we went with proper instructions.  Just one transfer. Voila! We popped up at our stop, looked around and I spied the recognizable building exterior and we walked the one block of strip joints and S &M shops to our destination.  Denise was in Good Hands! Nothing to worry about!

I flashed our home-printed billet and the sleazy doorman waved us in.  Strangely, they only allowed 10 people in at a time. OK, I figured, must be fire marshal rules. Our fellow revelers looked a tad under-dressed (the invite DID say dress casual, elegant but comfortable, I guessed that was subject to interpretation).

We were pointed to the coat check.  No! We wanted our coats in order to beat a hasty retreat (we were forewarned that the program would be hours and hours).  “No coats inside.”  Huh??  This was followed by “Check your camera, no photography.” Impossible!  The invite had stated clearly that cameras would be everywhere, everything was ok to shoot.

Denise, at that point, woke up. She said, “Is this the Gourmand Awards?” He looked confused. She showed the invite. “No no madam,” that is at the Follies Bergeres.”  That’s when I WOKE UP, OMG… I took Denise to the Moulin Rouge!

We had 15 minutes to get to our ceremony before (they claimed) no seating after the show started.

A “local” at the curb told us in halting English that the FB was a 5 minute walk, thattaway. Taxi? Walk? Taxi? Walk? Denise said, “Oh crap, let’s cab it and get there in plenty of time.” We hail, we tell the no-English speaking driver details and he drives off with us in a completely different direction, zigzagging through the city for 15 minutes to arrive and get us into the door with just minutes to spare.  A good laugh ensued, we found seats in a ditch-able spot (a dinner hosted by another of Denise’s publisher was at 9:30pm across the city, the show started at 9pm, and we had a stand-in arranged to accept Denise’s award if her category was extra late – we were optimistic).

But the show was progressing at a decent rate.  Denise’s category was number 2.8.  When we hit 1.6, she looked at her watch and it was now 9:50pm. Hmmm…stay?  Go?  I said, “STAY – we worked hard getting here!”  Things were moving faster, a good pace had set in. Here came categories 2.5, 2.6 and then it’s 2.7 with the four nominees’ book covers on the screen when Eduard Contra – the awards founder, owner, and host – read out, “Denise Vivaldo’s Food Styling Handbook is a wonderful resource…” I shriek, and start shoving Denise over my lap (of course, being a pig, I had sat at the aisle) and barked at her, “Get up there!” She leapt over me, got down the middle aisle to the stage with me in hot pursuit (me being the photographer). Her thank-you was cute and quick, thanking the book’s publisher, Gibbs Smith, her editor Madge Baird, her agent Lisa Ekus and all her difficult clients.

We got to our seats, sat for two seconds, and bolted to do some Facebook mobile uploads and emails, more photos and then off to dinner – great food, great wine, great dinner mates (thank you host Robert Rose, lovely wife Judith, Lisa Ekus and Virginia Willis, along with fellow award winner Cevin Bryerman of Publisher’s Weekly and his darling wife, Audrey).

We closed the restaurant. Dinner ended at midnight. Cab home. Zzzz.

Next up… sightseeing, friends, a cooking demo by Denise back at the cookbook fair, shopping, girl talk and more metro. We still have a week here in fabulous Paris.

Congratulations, Denise, for your World’s Best designation for the Food Stylist’s Handbook.