Sweet Charity Gala

I lucked out this past Monday when my friend Chelsea told me she had an extra ticket to the Heart of America's Sweet Charity gala and invited me to go with her.

The event was at the Mandarin Oriental (home of CityZen restaurant which I'm too cheap to try despite it's rave reviews), a beautiful hotel near the waterfront.

This gala was the best DC gala I've been to. It features over 60 of DC's top chefs who serve you savory and/or sweet treats from their restaurants. Once you're in all of the alcohol and food is completely free. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol but the food was incredible!

Jose Andre's people were there from the Mini Bar and I got to try his liquid nitrogen popcorn with curry powder. You put the popcorn cube in your month and chew it with your mouth closed as watch smoke out out of your nose as the liquid nitrogen reacts to your body temperature.

I though Blue Duck Tavern's orange chocolate cake was to die for. As was the passion fruit cheesecake on a stick dunked in chocolate with fried pieces of crepe dough around the edges (sorry I forget where this was from). I also loved the strawberry cloud on seared tuna with a balsalmic glaze. Some of the best truffles were chocolate caramel truffles with rock salt on top (what a great mix). Oh and BlackSalt restaurant has an amazing chocolate bark with pretzels mixed in and pistachios and salt on the top. There was so much food that someone mistakenly thought I was pregnant by the end of the night! Since I'm so thin I wasn't really offended, just shocked.

Anyway, after you eat the food and go to some of the culinary demonstrations they have a fashion show with models dressed in sweets and chocolate. The winner was Cruella de Vil, whose hair was sprayed in white and milk chocolate.