Chef, restauranteur, and TV personality Geoffrey Zakarian writes in from the City of Angeles, where he traveled to attend the Daytime Emmy Awards. Read on as Zakarian dishes on his weekend happenings…
Dear Daily,
Saturday I hopped on a jetBlue Mint flight from JFK to LAX. Nothing but blue skies ahead. Upon landing, I checked into the Montage Beverly Hills, and went straight to my restaurant Georgie with Key Group and Team Zakarian to make our weekend game plan. That night, we started with a celebration party hosted by BSTV at my bar, The Garden Bar, for The Kitchen’s TWO Daytime Emmy nominations! From there, a few friends and I went to Charlize Theron’s charity dinner for her wonderful organization CTAOP. I auctioned off two dinners at Georgie where I will personally cook for the guests. Chris Martin rocked the house with a surprise performance and Laura Bush spoke about the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Sunday, I hit the gym hard in prep for the night’s festivities, ordered a ton of room service for Margaret, my wife, and I to snack on, and put on my Angel Ramos bespoke tuxedo. Margaret dazzled in an Alice and Olivia gown with classic black Manolos on her feet, a Christian Louboutin clutch in her hands and vintage jewels from Aaron Faber Gallery on her ears. A giant limo pulled up and inside we found agent Phillip Button and my co-host Marcela Valladolid, decked in an Alexia Maria gown, Chanel shoes and Oscar de la Renta earrings, enjoying a magnum of rose champagne. With Sinatra playing we headed to pick up my other co-hosts Sunny Anderson and Jeff Mauro, along with his wife Sarah in Esteban Cortazar. Then we were off to the show at the Pasadena Convention Center. Upon arrival a very long red carpet and hundreds of photographers greeted us. My seat was perfectly positioned with a view to my left of Sharon Osbourne and Melissa Gilbert and directly behind Trisha Yearwood and Alex Trebek.
It was great to see my dear friend Daphne Oz who got snarled in a Family Feud with her dad, Dr. Oz, both nominated in the same category – Dr. Oz took home the gold. We had a blast at the awards show. Oh, and did I mention, I love this town.
Cheers from LA,
GZ
