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.
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