What’s it like when the “Best American Chef” as anointed by Time magazine is in your kitchen preparing dinner for 20?
For Denise Cobb, a co-founder of the Naples Winter Wine Festival who confesses that she is not a cook, it was a tad intimidating, even though as one of CNN’s original anchors, she’s interviewed globally renowned newsmakers of all sorts.
The chef? Multi-Michelin-starred Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, lauded for his dedication to perfection.
“He’s quiet and very serious. But when dinner was served, I positioned myself to see what was happening in the kitchen. After the first course came out, I looked over, and he was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of wine. I was like Oh my God , as he toasted me through the door.”
When Keller returned to the Cobbs’ kitchen in 2003 for the festival’s third year, it was decidedly less stressful.
What is the Naples Winter Wine Festival?
Private dinners at trustees’ homes or other elegant venues with wines poured by the world’s most acclaimed vintners paired with multi-course gourmet meals prepared by celebrity chefs are merely one component of the annual charitable wine festival, celebrating its 24th year.