The Stars Came Out and Gloves Came Off at Guy's Food Fight
Friday night a slew of well-fed food fans were drawn to the late-night party emceed by Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host Guy Fieri at the New York City Wine & Food Festival. The first iteration of the late-night trivia event, pitting star against star, appeared at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in February. Guy was proud to announce that this was Round 2, only bigger, better and with more booze. Guy's ever-present energy ricocheted off the walls as he riled up the crowd for the panel of Food Network stars, distributing drinks personally before introducing the two teams. Carla Hall, Josh Capon and Valerie Bertinelli faced off against Chopped judges Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy and Scott Conant. Food Fight with Guy Fieri was a rare chance for the attendees to see the Food Network stars unedited and unfiltered.
The first round was a fairly tame game of Two Truths and a Lie. This popular bar game puts forth three statements, two of which are true and one that is a lie. The teams then had to determine which statements about the opposing team's members were lies. The most-revealing aspects of the game were that Marc never went to college and that Scott doesn't actually hate onions — just raw onions.
• Carla Hall met her husband on Match.com.
• Scott's biggest inspiration is the Fonz.
• Alex loves Formula One racing.
Next, a trivia bout quickly turned into a party, as Chef Anne Burrell and Food Network Star winner Justin Warner joined the teams to help them answer questions that included:
Answers: Seahorse, Robyn and Aubrey, and nine.
The finale was a blindfolded omelet cook-off between Carla and Alex that ended with an unsurprising result: Iron Chef Alex pulled off the win. Carla's omelet was flawlessly executed but lacked enough seasoning — and the healthy dose of bourbon that Marc added to Alex's.
In the end, Food Fight with Guy Fieri was just like those blindly cooked omelets. Was it perfect? No. Was it pretty? No. Was it fun? Absolutely. And as Friday turned to Saturday and Ubers lined up to ferry the weary home, who cared who won? In all honesty it was probably Josh somehow, because the six-time burger champ seems to win everything.
More from the 2016 New York City Wine & Food Festival:
- The 10 Most-Comforting Fall Flavors We Tasted at Katie and Marcela’s Harvest Party
- The 7 Best Things We Ate at Anne’s Aperitivo! Event at the New York City Wine & Food Festival
- Burger Bash 2016 Winners: David’s Cafe and Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer
- The 9 Best Bites from Giada’s Ultimate Italian Dinner at the New York City Wine & Food Festival
- Everything We Couldn’t Get Enough of at Chelsea Market Live
- Tacos & Tequila: “The People’s Food”