"wedding receptions" news and stories

How does a celebrity Manhattan chef who has two restaurants, both with two Michelin stars and who has catered over 400 weddings, do a wedding for himself? He takes it to Montlouis-Sur-Loire France and makes it a five-day celebration.

Chef David Bouley packed himself, his bride-to-be Nicole Bartelme, 80 invited guests, a staff of 20, and specialty organic foods from all over the world, and headed out to two leased chateaus in the Loire Valley. The multi-day feast of "organic haute-cuisine meals washed down with fine wines that included some from their birth years" was also a self-catered event, with some foodie guests bringing gourmet delicacies to add to the table. Here are some highlights:

• Wine, cheese and artisanal bread baked in an oak-fired oven by Jacques Mahou, a seventh-generation French baker.
• Classic French bistro food, including roasted veal, blood sausage and cured meat.
• 55 pounds of rare tomatoes cultivated on chestnut stakes in the garden of the chateau for an improvised lunch.
• Harry Snady brought 1990 Nuit Saint Georges Burgundy wine
• A guest drove 12 hours from Barcelona with 11 kilograms of fresh tuna
• A chef from Kyoto carried a suitcase filled with special wasabi, fresh green gingko and other ingredients not normally available in France.
• The officiating priest, Father David, offered fruit jams from his monastery, the Abbaye de Sept Fons.
• One evening, a Spanish-themed meal, cooked by the Barcelona-based chef Roger Martinez, was served in the stone-lined moat of the chateau
• Of course, there were desserts and wedding cake.

Now I just wonder what they're doing for their honeymoon.

Source