Dear readers, more proof that when I say something, I keep my word.

A few blogs ago, I reported back from Manhattan where I put in a couple of appearances at the annual Food Network Wine & Food Festival, the highlight of which was a fabulous wing-ding at a chi-chi renovated warehouse in Chelsea to raise money for hunger relief called Meatball Madness. Here, amid a bevy of stations dispensing wine, about 40 of the Big Apple’s top chefs cooked and served up their version of the meat dish du jour – from lamb meatballs to a veggie version to a delectable one stuffed with raisins and pine nuts.

The latter came from Michael Lomonaco who famously escaped the 911 disaster when he was executive chef of Windows on the World and whom I interviewed about that tragedy a few months later while attending the James Beard Awards in NYC. Now at Porter House New York, his amazing meatball creation was simply delish. Read more…