My 30th birthday in NYC this past March was a day I consider to be so important to my womanhood. Actually, the start of my womanhood. No more screw-up twenties. So this meant a big deal to me. A BIG DEAL. Meaning I craved a day that combined two of my biggest passions: food and opera. My Best Friend Forever came along for the ride. I adore that girl, another essential part of the day.
There were several key players in this. Here they are:
Rock-star pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini. All of you rarefied foodies know who I am talking about. I call him a rock star because he is good-looking, sports sleeve tattoo-age, has fab hair, and is enormously brilliant at what he does. I was Facebooking chefs at random one day and sent him a line about where to find a good cupcake in NYC.
Because another key player in this day was a great cupcake. Cupcakes have been my official birthday tradition since my 29th birthday trip to Seattle, where I inhaled a lemon one at Cupcake Royale.
But anyway, back to Iuzzini. He replied, to my great glee! The interaction was minimal, as a professional has no time to twiddle his thumbs. (He requested cupcakes, which I was obliged to bring.)
And that turned into me deciding where I wanted to eat dinner. I had originally leaned toward Babbo. Fun Italian with Italian opera, yes, yes! But no, Babbo was a convoluted out-of-the-way, and the BFF and I wanted an unhurried affair. Jean-Georges is around the corner from the Met. Iuzzini is the pastry chef there. It fell together neatly.
The other player was the Metropolitan Opera. I had never been there before, and I studied singing in high school and college for a while. I have practically memorized all of the Opera News issues since 1972 which my high school choral teacher bequeathed to me. I am a die-hard fanatic. Opera is in my blood. We were to see Madama Butterfly that night.
So I took Iuzzini’s suggestion and ate cupcakes with the BFF at Sugar Sweet Sunshine. They were good. Hit the spot. That is all I can say. I think Cupcake Royale spoiled me.
She and I went on to Jacques Torres. We ate some nice chocolates. (Notice “nice” and “good” aren’t my strong liking adjectives.) I bought hot chocolate I wasn’t particularly impressed with. (Tinned hot chocolate which airport security lady turned over in her hands as it was already leaking cocoa. Did she think I was smuggling drugs in a hot chocolate tin? Heh.)
Anyway, the BFF and I went back to the hotel and primped. I wore a long purple gown. I felt like a movie star. The lead actress in my birthday movie, woo-ha!
We arrived at the restaurant and proceeded to have a lovely meal. Three courses from what I remember, the chicken was fabulous. But the dessert….
The dessert…
Iuzzini’s concept was a “fourplay” (har har, get your mind out of the gutter), four mini dessert tastings on a square plate. There was caramel, chocolate…can’t remember the rest. There were four varieties, and the AWESOME thing was, the two we DIDN’T ORDER were sent out after the two we DID ORDER.
It didn’t stop. A special birthday dessert arrived. A tropical dessert which burst and flavored my mouth as I savored it. A toe-curling dessert. I still have the Happy Birthday banner part of it in the fridge.
A server cut strips of homemade marshmallow with scissors. Pate de fruits. Chocolates and mini macarons to take with us. I was a supremely spoiled birthday princess.
So we walked to the opera…or rather, we waddled to the opera. It was wonderful. Our seats were moved to the second row due to rehearsal cameras, another delightful piece of birthday karma.
The night ended with champagne in bed. Perfect.
