Chef Shawn McClain - Chefdance 2013

Shawn McClain is the award-winning exec chef at Sage located inside Aria Casino in Vegas. I got to snag a photo with this renowned veggie expert at Javier Plascencia's Chefdance night before. 

The Red Touch Media Lounge was slammed again with Chefdancers sipping sassy Snake Oil cocktails waiting for the dining room to open.

Crystal Bowersox, the spunky American Idol finalist, rocked the house during dinner. 

With Jean Shim, Mimi Kim and Brittyn Miller.

Salad of Roasted Winter Vegetables. The veggies, pumpkin seed brittle and sharp greens were beautiful, but the truffle vinaigrette took it above and beyond. The flavors were so mind-blowing and so intensely flavorful, we all went nuts and gushed at every bite. Omg.

Chestnut Soup. While I was still drooling over the truffled veggies, this unbelieveable soup came out. Segment pieces of grapefruit were juicy mouthfuls of heaven and generous chunks of cold-smoked scallops in a brown buttered yam broth just killed it. I've never tasted anything like this—one of the best soups I've ever had in my life!

Blacklister. Zacapa 23 rum, black rice horchata, toasted almond, Demerara sugar, pressed lime, toasted coconut, a Snake Oil Cocktail Co. pairing. Awesome, strong and flowery.

Producer and director Jean Shim. 

The walls of Chefdance were lined with oversize prints of iconic megastars shot by legendary photographer and producer Norman Seeff. 

Wild-Caught Sturgeon. Tender, flaky, buttery fillet of delicately crusted sturgeon fillet garnished with MorningStar Farms "bacon" and served with pickled apples, juniper and rye. Hearty yet light and very delicious.

Dark Chocolate Pave. Alpine mousseline with peppermint snow and crumbs of chocolate streusel. Omg, this was so rich and fabulous. Perfect finale.

Hostess extraordinaire, Mimi Kim.

Greg Holden and Kenny Griswold.

With the amazingly talented (and painfully beautiful) British sculptor Eleanor Cardozo, actress Cosima Kinsey, and Mimi Kim.

Chefdance's lead sponsor was WishClouds. The Red Touch Media Lounge was a raging party all night long.

Live portraits by Michelle Carnes on the upper deck.

Right before Chefdance I saw Computer Chess, one of the most bizarre and clever movies ever made which deservingly won the Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance 2013. My inner nerd loved this wacky film—thank you Davidsons for taking me!

Andrew Bujaski, director, writer and editor of Computer Chess, came up for Q&A after the movie and brought up the entire cast and crew. Good times.

XOXO