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    Home » adventures

    Meatball Madness hosted by Giada De Laurentiis

    First Published: October 13, 2011 . Last Modified: October 7, 2021 lisa18 Comments This post may contain affiliate links

    Two weeks ago I attended San Pellegrino's Meatball Madness presented by Buitoni. I was the lucky winner of two tickets thanks to Michelle from Taste as You Go and Buitoni. This event was part of the NYC Food and Wine Festival and it was hosted by the Giada De Laurentiis. Giada is just as lovely in person as she is on TV. This was my first event at the NYC festival and all I can say was that it was pure meatball eating bliss. I am a real fan of cooking meatballs. 

    There were over 35 different meatballs prepared by some of the best restaurants and chefs in the city, along with appetizers, desserts, drinks and Buitoni pasta. What more could you want? Wait, how about some celebrity chefs walking around also?  Of course, Giada was the hit of the Meatball Madness event but there were many other chefs walking around and enjoying some meatballs. I snapped a picture of my husband with Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible. Chef Michael Psilakis was nice enough to let me get a picture with him in between serving his Kefi Meatballs with Orzo Salad.  His meatball dish was delicious but unfortunately I didn't get a good photo. I really liked the orzo he made with it too.

    My biggest mistake of the night was not having a meatball eating plan. I wanted to try as many meatballs as possible. Since my husband was driving home, I wouldn't mind being in the passenger seat half napping and half in a meatball stupor. But because of the lack of planning, I was only able to try about a dozen. We started out getting our own meatballs and eating the whole thing. If we had shared, we could have tried much more. After eating about six, I learned my lesson and only took a bite or two of each.  I also should of laid off the appetizers. And don't tell anyone but the hubby and I went back for seconds (or thirds) at the Buitoni booth. We couldn't resist the Quattro Formaggi Agnoltti with pesto sauce.  Pasta is one of my favorite things to eat. Especially when it's filled with lots of cheese.

    As luck would have it, we tried the two winning meatballs of Meatball Madness before we even knew they were winners. Joey Campanaro of  The Little Owl and his Gravy Meatball Sliders with Dandelion and Pickled Fennel Salad won the judges choice award. This was the first meatball I had tried all night and yes, I ate the whole thing along with the roll. It was definitely a deserving winner.

    The other winner of the night was Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow of the Meatball Shop who won the People's Choice award for their Steak n'Bacon Cheddar Balls on a Buttermilk Biscuit with Mushroom Gravy. These were great also and my husband really enjoyed them.

    Here are some of the other meatballs we really liked:

    Prosciutto and Mortadella Meatballs from Osteria Morini
    Nonna's meatballs with Roasted Peppers and Ricotta from Abboccato
     

     

    Veal Meatballs from Ciano
     

    One popular meatball that everyone was talking about was a Rabbit Meatball with Scallion, Black Olives and Rosemary from Maialino with Nick Anderer preparing it. It was a beautiful looking meatball and we figured we wanted to try something different. I liked the flavor but wasn't crazy about the soft texture of the meatball. Or maybe I just thought of a soft little bunny running through my back yard.

    After eating all the meatballs, a stroll was needed. We walked around and luckily, I ran into Michelle again. We stopped by the Buitoni booth to get our pictures taken. They had a really cute booth set up with a Vespa and an Italian background. Michelle and I also had our picture taken with Chef Waldo.

     

    Meatball Madness was such a fun event! The awesome thing was that 100% of the net proceeds of the festival went to the Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength®, a national nonprofit working to end childhood hunger in America. There were some wonderful volunteers that worked really hard to make sure it was a well organized event. I hope to go to the NYC Food and Wine Festival next year! Thanks again to Michelle From Taste As You Go and Buitoni!

            

     
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    Comments

    1. Angela says

      October 13, 2011 at 4:41 pm

      That looks like so much fun--love the celeb shots!

      Reply
    2. Erica says

      October 13, 2011 at 6:19 pm

      What a cool event!!! I love the meatball slider. And very neat that you got to meet the celebrity chefs. I totally want to meet Giada!

      Reply
    3. Shelly Borrell says

      October 13, 2011 at 8:05 pm

      Great Pics Jersey Girl!!! Looks like a lot of fun with meatballs 🙂

      Shelly

      Reply
    4. Kathy - Panini Happy says

      October 14, 2011 at 12:13 am

      What a fun time!

      Reply
    5. Shelby says

      October 14, 2011 at 4:32 am

      Lisa what great fun it looks like you had! Next time you'll remember to have a meatball eating plan though. 😉

      Reply
    6. Jeanette says

      October 14, 2011 at 8:16 am

      What a fun event - congrats!

      Reply
    7. That Girl says

      October 14, 2011 at 8:31 am

      What a meatball-palooza!

      Reply
    8. Velva says

      October 14, 2011 at 10:10 am

      What an absolutely fun evening...Love, love it.

      Velva

      Reply
    9. teresa says

      October 14, 2011 at 2:40 pm

      oh my gosh, how fun! and to meet all of those tv chefs, so cool. the food looks amazing!

      Reply
    10. Patsyk says

      October 14, 2011 at 3:57 pm

      Looks like you had a fabulous time!

      Reply
    11. Alison says

      October 14, 2011 at 5:14 pm

      Um wow that all looks so delicious! How fun!!

      Reply
    12. Texas Type A Mom says

      October 14, 2011 at 6:46 pm

      That food looks amazing and the company looks pretty great as well! Great pics!

      Reply
    13. marla says

      October 14, 2011 at 8:19 pm

      Looks like you had a blast at this super fun event. Such cute photos of you!!

      Reply
    14. Colie's Kitchen says

      October 15, 2011 at 2:35 am

      Hi this is Nicole from Colie’s Kitchen I just discovered your blog and wanted to drop by and say hi. I am now a new follower. I would love to have you stop by Colie’s Kitchen if you get a chance. http://www.colieskitchen.com

      Reply
    15. sarah says

      October 16, 2011 at 1:25 am

      wow. I wish I would get the opportunity to do something like this. It looks like so much fun!

      Reply
    16. Beth Jackson Klosterboer says

      October 16, 2011 at 8:39 am

      What a cool event to attend. I've been to tastings like that and it is so hard to pace yourself because you want to eat everything. It's hard to throw away half of a plate of amazing food. Sharing is the way to go, I learned that after rolling home from an event.

      Beth @ Hungry Happenings

      Reply
    17. Ciao Chow Linda says

      October 16, 2011 at 11:47 am

      I would have gone crazy with all those meatball choices. Next time, you'll pace yourself differently I'll bet.

      Reply
    18. Michelle @ Taste As You Go says

      October 20, 2011 at 9:05 pm

      I could have sworn I commented days ago, but clearly I didn't!

      It was great meeting you at Meatball Madness. I'm glad you had such a good time. Thanks for posting the Vespa pictures!

      Reply

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    Hi, I'm Lisa

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