The 2011 Tasty Awards, With Alie and Georgia
Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark are food-and-drink-loving best friends and hosts of the popular Food2 web series, Drinks With Alie and Georgia.They were gracious enough to cover the 2011 Tasty Awards, and share some highlights with us:
If you thought the Golden Globes ruled red-carpet-casual, you've never been to the Tasties. Honoring TV and web personalities in addition to food, beverage and style programming, the Tasty Awards are only in their second year -- and in terms of awards shows, it doesn’t get much better; the Tasty Awards honor food and style in the way the Golden Globes award movies and TV.
Held at the Egyptian Theater on January 13, the 2nd annual Tasties were hosted by veteran drinker and consummate jokester Zane Lamprey of Drinking Made Easy and Three Sheets. True to his reputation, he sauntered past red carpet photographers with a booze-filled blue plastic cup in hand before taking the podium with this welcome: "We're here to celebrate food and fashion . . . So, people who eat a lot and people who don't eat at all."
Presenting the Kikkoman Award for best reality series, History Channel's Bobby Bognar took a jab at Lamprey with "At least I don’t have to worry about following someone funny."
Later, Jeannie Mai of Style Network's How Do I Look? accepted the Great Taste award and quipped: "Food and fashion SO go together. I eat a lot. I drink a lot, too. And I can’t wait to drink with you all afterward."
Speaking of drinking: There were some, well, technical hiccups in the evening. An awards official left the envelopes -- containing the winning names -- back in their hotel room, leading to delays, confusion and Thirsty Girl's Leslie Sbrocco's mood-saving improv about the crowd stretching their wineglass-lifting muscles. But in all, it was a friendly, spirited affair that with age may come into its own, like a fine wine that we couldn’t wait to drink at the after-party.
Post-show, guests and honorees mingled in the Egyptian Theater's courtyard, sampling spicy curry from L.A.s Starry Kitchen (doled out by a man in a banana suit, one of our favorite new friends), munching gourmet chocolate, and trying to Ask Aida Mollenkamp for a photo without seeming excessively awkward and/or nervous. In our case.
We may see you there next year, but until then, take a look at our photos to see what you missed.
With our blogging duties done, we grabbed a little face time on the red carpet. We'll see you next year, Tasty Awards, only this time we're gunning for a coveted nomination.
Chefs Manouschka Guerrier and Stuart O'Keeffe of Food Network's Private Chefs of Beverly Hills pose on the red carpet.
We made friends with the Starry Kitchen peeps, who were serving spicy coconut curry chicken at the post party. Bonus points for the banana costume.
Jolene Sugarbaker accepted the award for Best Comedy Series with: "I'm back again! Two times in a row. Trailer parks have come a long way."
We toast to cocktail shows with Dr. Mixologist himself, Cooking Channel's Darryl Robinson, host of Drink Up. He's a beverage scholar and a gentleman.
Food Network's Cupcake Wars host Justin Willman puts on his interviewing hat (er, bow-tie) to chat with journalists as he strolled down the red carpet.
Private Chefs of Beverly Hills star, Chef Stuart O'Keeffe, poses during the pre-party festivities. We'd be doing you a disservice if we didn't mention how adorable he is in person.
A giant bearded man in a blue bunny costume and stilettos serving raw oysters?! This is our kinda party.