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[title]New York’s food world is poking another hole in their belts after the Food Network’s fifth annual New York City Wine & Food Festival, which hosted 130 events over the course of four grub-stuffed, booze-soaked days last week. The party kicked off Thursday night with a raucous roast of celebrity chef and provocateur Anthony Bourdain, who received ribbings from Rachael Ray, Guy Fieri, Eric Ripert and others before taking the stage to give as he got—see the best ten lines of the night here. Elsewhere that evening, Donatella’s tomato-braised veal meatballs took the audience award at the popular Meatball Madness event, while the judges named the pork meatballs in amatriciana sauce from Gabe Thompson’s new Italian eatery, L’Apicio, as the best.
On Friday night, crowds gathered to sample 28 different patties at the headlining Burger Bash; Josh Capon’s Bash Burger from Burger & Barrel was the audience winner, and Michael White’s White Label burger from Ai Fiori took the judges’ award. Cupcakes dominated at the sold-out SWEET! event later that evening, which featured imaginative desserts from all over the city, like salted crack caramel ice cream from Ample Hills Creamery, and a decadent chocolate cake—topped with marzipan birthday candles—from Dominique Ansel.
On Saturday, former New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton hopped onstage with celebutoque Marcus Samuelsson to discuss the chef’s unique upbringing and wide-ranging education in the kitchen, and wd-50’s Wylie Dufresne and Booker & Dax’s Dave Arnold teamed up to pair “molecular” bites with equally inventive cocktails. The festival began to wrap up Sunday; at Trucks & Train in the Lower East Side, Train performed and lines stretched in front of 25 food trucks with vendors including Korilla BBQ and Domo Taco.