I was extremely honored to be invited to the third annual Charity Di Vino function at the Sheraton in Mahwah last Thursday night. For those of you who may not be familiar with this, it is one of the largest wine sampling events in the Garden State—organized by Louis LaVigna and Joe Tredici on behalf of UNICO—two great guys who were truly dedicated.

The other non-profit beneficiary organizations were: Hearts & Crafts Grief Counseling, the Center for Food Action, Meals On Wheels and Meaningful Movements. Super Cellars and The Cheese Shop sponsored the fantastic assortment of wines and finger foods. Madonne, I enjoyed some good Prosecco!

My involvement was to represent Chef Central with Ninamarie Bojekian of Ooh La La Catering, my opponent in the opening round of the “Ultimate Chef Bergen County Competition” held in Paramus back on October 17th. We were both in Mahwah to find out who won that day in Paramus but to also square off in a meatball throwdown. Each of us rolled over 500 meatballs for a very hungry crowd and we were set up at two beautifully designed kitchen counter stations made special by Salerno Custom Cabinetry in Saddle Brook. Other than the throwdown, there were lots of other fun activities—besides just the wine and cheese tasting!

Music was provided by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, there were auctions for a vintage Yankee Stadium seat among others, and lots of tables featuring various vendors. Brooklyn Cannoli donated dessert (their cannolis were damn good!) and Carlo’s Bakery provided a cake which was raffled off. The ballroom was decked out to the nines as was the hallways and side lobby of the stunning Sheraton Crossroads Hotel for what turned out to be a really spectacular evening. Although we were all certainly winners, I should probably share with you the results of the Ultimate Chef and meatball contests.

It was a split decision. As far as the Ultimate Chef Competition, the judges felt that Ninamarie presented three better dishes than I did. Neither of us got to hear details on the judges specific reasonings or what in particular the deciding factors were in their decision. I’ll repeat what I said when I blogged about that day and that’s that I’m proud of what I cooked and would not have done anything differently. I wish Chef Ninamarie and her assistant Jessica nothing but the best in the next round, which will be held in January. I am also proud to say that I won the meatball throwdown…

Ninamarie’s were very tasty, and the votes were close. This was not a judge-decided winner, this was voted on by the guests in attendance at the Charity Di Vino. At the end of the day, the Meatball King keeps his crown. Again, there were no losers and I hope that I’ll be back at a future Charity Di Vino affair.

I’d like to thank Ninamarie and Jessica for being such great sports, and of course Jim and Andrea of Chef Central for just thinking of me to compete as an Ultimate Chef. I’d also like to thank Whole Foods for contributing all of the ingredients for both the Ultimate cookoff and the meatball throwdown as well as the Sheraton for use of their kitchen to cook what was over a combined 1,000 meatballs. Grazie to Louis and Joe of UNICO for including us all in the Charity Di Vino and all the charities and sponsors—let’s remember that they’re the ones that this was all done for. It felt good to be a part of something in which good causes were participating, and the people running the charities were some of the most genuine and warm-hearted folks I’ve met in a long time.