Dining with Rocco

When I headed out last night to my dinner with Rocco at St Supery Vineyards, I had two objectives: to meet celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito for long enough to convey to him how much we love his mama and his meatballs, and to hang out with food blogging friends Jane Maynard, Jennifer Perillo and Gina Von Esmarch. I was also pretty excited to taste some great St Supery wines.

The bus ride was long, close to two hours, but a lot of fun. We even broke out the bubbly for the last thirty minutes to get the party started. This Week for Dinner was probably the first food blog I read, and sitting next to Jane Maynard to talk about France and blogging was a huge treat.

We arrived at the winery at dusk and the rolling hills were fading too fast in the darkness to get any good shots. The smell of the country was exhilerating though. It's imprinted in my mind even if the vistas are not.

We headed into the main building for cocktail hour. I loved seeing the mountains of barrels and the huge steel vats where the St Supery wines are made. The first wine, a fruity Sauvignon Blanc, was one of my favorites and we had two amazing appetizers: a tomato water scallop and sea urchin ceviche and a roasted tomato jam bruschetta topped with the curds from burrata.

We were all milling around, chatting excitedly when Rocco came out. He made his way around to all of us, taking the time to ask us about where we were from and what we wrote about. I got my picture taken, talked about Mama and New York City and went back to chatting with my friends, thrilled that I had accomplished what I set out to do.

Then we got called to dinner. To the assigned seating at the small round tables. And that's when I saw it. Our placecards... together.

I was to have an entire dinner, seating to the right of Rocco DiSpirito.

I literally had to go to the bathroom to compose myself, so overwhelmed by the thought of making conversation with him through the entire meal. But once the meal began, all the stress faded away. He was easy to talk to and very fun. He mostly stayed on message the entire evening, talking about how the Food Network is pressuring mothers to become foodies and to prepare elaborate meals every night. It's okay, he assured us, to break out some Bertolli frozen dinners some nights, just to make sure to eat as a family.

Well, I totally subscribe to that viewpoint, and was happy to taste all the Bertolli frozen foods and see that they were good. But I won't lie, they weren't the best part of the evening. Having a once in a lifetime opportunity to talk truffles, mushroom foraging, and restaurant work with Rocco, was definitely the highlight.

And ladies, in case you're wondering, he's not a candidate for airbrushing.