A FAB-ulous Holiday Tale

Twas' the month before Christmas and let's face it, this year really sucked. Without going into the gory details, let's just say that it feels like I have been dragging a huge lump of coal around with me for the better part of the last 7 months.

Here I am, only weeks away from my annual trip to California; and I received an e-mail invitation to check out the Top Chef All-Stars viewing party at Café Firenze; one of Fabio Viviani's restaurants in CA. I saw this as an awesome opportunity to finally have something amazing to look forward to and help to shake this dark cloud. I have met Fabio several times in the past, including dinner at Café Firenze, and at a book signing and cooking class. But come on...its Fabio, ladies!? You understand, right?!? The other things that had been dragging me down were starting to clear and I wanted to add this to that transition! Originally my trip was one day off from the date of the viewing. But, you know me...I changed my holiday flight by one day just to be able to go to this Top Chef party. It was tricky planning, everything would have to be perfect. The plane would land with just enough time to get in the car and zip out to Moorpark for the event. Hopefully Santa's reindeers would help us fly over the L.A. traffic with ease.

I tweeted my excitement, and was SHOCKED AND THRILLED to receive the above tweet in return. This was going to be so awesome!

Finally, this past Wednesday was the day. My luggage was packed and by the door with care, waiting for Dan to take me to the air(port). All was going well, flights on schedule...until I got to Las Vegas for my connection. I called mom to check in and got the news that there were TORRENTIAL down pours in Los Angeles. (Um, hello...SUNNY California?) The roads were closed and getting to Moorpark would be nearly impossible. My mood went from good to bad in one second flat. I had to stay positive so I thought that maybe, just MAYBE the rain would stop between the time it took for me to take off in Vegas and land in L.A. (fat chance).

Well, at least the flight was still going to take off on time, right? Wrong. As we were closing the door the airline decided that the entire plane should be held for one family that was on a delayed connection. 10 minutes, they said 10 minutes. Let me tell you how 10 minutes works...

• 10 minutes for the other plane to land
• 10 minutes for them to deplane
• 10 minutes to run the length of the airport
• 10 minutes to "finalize the paperwork"
• 10 minutes to get their luggage on to the plane.
• Oh, and don't forget the 10 minutes that we had to sit in que to take-off.

What does 10 minutes really mean? It means nearly an hour sitting on the runway with visions of Fabio cooking in my head. When we finally took off, the delays had us touching down in Los Angeles a mere 15 minutes before our reservation at his Moorpark restaurant which is over an hour away -- without traffic. I was so, so, SO disappointed.

Finally, we landed at LAX. I got off the plane, ran to baggage claim, did not greet mom with much enthusiasm. Shame on me, I know. I was just CRUSHED that this was all falling apart. She kept telling me it would be OK. We would just skip dinner and head out to the restaurant anyway, in time for the viewing. To my surprise, at least the rain had stopped.

So, lets give this a try... Freeway. Flooding. Rush hour. You know how this is going to go, right? Sigh.

As a last ditch effort to rescue the night; I called Fabio's other restaurant, Firenze Osteria in Toluca Lake. It was much closer to where we were trapped on the freeway. I wanted to see if maybe, JUST MAYBE, he would be stopping by that location later in the evening. Guess what? Win! WIN! We hopped off the freeway, made a slight detour and arrived at Firenze Osteria in less than a half hour.

We had an amazing, AH-MAZE-ING, meal. Burrata salad, braised beef ribs, creamy parmesan polenta, saffron risotto. All the while, we sat in the bar and watched Top Chef All-Stars and Fabio score part of his team win with his whole wheat light gnocchi at the U.S. Open. (Po-tae-toe-y Peelows).

As we were sipping our coffee and starting to see other viewers (chef stalkers) arrive for the 9 p.m. airing of Top Chef (it runs on loop in the bar), in walks the epitome of charm and graciousness. FABIO VIVIANI!! Yes Sandy, there is a Santa Claus and he is a 30-something year old chef from Italy. In all seriousness, Fabio actually spotted me from across the bar and came straight to my table with a massive hug and a proclamation that he was so worried when I didn't show up at the Moorpark location. Hello, he KNEW I didn't show up. Me, just a girl from Milwaukee.
But not just any girl, the "Mila-wau-kee Cupp-a-cake Queen". A very lucky girl who can go into a restaurant owned by a celebrity chef and in return, he hugs and kisses and knows by name. Class Act. He joined us for a while. I gave him a goodie bag full of IronCupcake awesome. It was all sooo worth it.

Thank you mom for getting me there in one piece. Thank you Fabio for being so genuinly charming. After the year I have had, it was the most perfect Christmas present I could have asked for.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Muah!