And, of course, we were there with our point-and-shoot, the snaps of which we've amassed into a food and chef porn pictorial, which you can view on the pages ahead.
Triple dose of duck. Roasted duck Benedict with a Parmesan-polenta cake, roasted duck egg and duck fat hollandaise sauce from Snooze. Duck: it's what's for dinner. The Snooze display, powered by a framed Westword 2010 Best of Denver award for Best Hangover breakfast. No doubt several of the revelers at last night's shindig are both hungover and chasing away their headaches over pineapple upside-down pancakes at Snooze right now. The crew from Jonesy's EatBar adds the finishing touches to their baby spinach salad. Baby spinach salad tossed in a hibiscus-ginger vinaigrette, topped with braised lamb belly and fresh pomegranate seeds and roasted pistachios from Jonesy's EatBar. Duck confit and sweet potato puree topped with Stranahan's duck sauce from Black Pearl. Almond and bacon chicken liver mousse-stuffed date with a sangria gelée from Table 6. Paul Reilly (Encore), Charley Sinden (The Lobby) and Daniel Asher (Root Down) hamming it up. Duck drummette with smoked cherry, maple and blood orange sauce, housemade crème fraiche ranch dressing and micro cilantro from Root Down. The Avenue Grill's strawberry margarita sauce won "Best of Show" from the judges, which resulted in a victorious fist pump and a trophy. Encore's Paul Reilly, whose dish of sweet potato gnocchi with roasted poblano and pumpkin seed cream won "Best of Show" from guests, who voted on their favorites. Reilly, as you can see, had plans to sleep with his trophy.