De Gustibus Cooking School at Macy's with Marc Vetri, Jeff Michaud & Brad Spence

I think the producers of The Best Thing I Ever Ate and Unique Eats must be former porn producers, because every time I watch those shows, I'm like, "Ahhhh, yeeeah, daaayum that's good..." And that's exactly how I reacted when I saw Michael Symon rave about the pasta from Vetri on The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Last Supper last year.  I wanted to go to Vetri but realistically wasn't going to make a trip to Philly just to eat there.

Luckily for me, my bf booked us a class at De Gustibus Cooking School at Macy's to watch Marc Vetri, Jeff Michaud and Brad Spence make party-in-my-mouth status Italian dishes. Jeff Michaud, pictured on the left, is the chef at Osteria; Brad Spence, center, is the chef at Amis; and Marc Vetri, right, is the chef at Vetri and owner of all the aforementioned restaurants.

Every person received a recipe packet for each of the items that the chefs were going to make. The format of the class was informal, with the audience asking questions to the chefs and the chefs telling stories of how they got their start at the restaurant. I loved their passion for cooking and camaraderie.

After starting with ricotta bruschetta and and eggplant bruschetta, we watched them make squid ragu with white polenta. Since the dishes required a lot of time to cook, they served us food that they prepared ahead of time.

The next dish was fazzoletti with hen ragu and pears,

followed by oxtail alla vaccinara on a bed of celery root puree and topped with celery salad. This dish was my favorite. I picked at all the meat on the bone and had to resist licking the plate clean. The pork lard that the oxtail was seared on must have something to do with it.

We finished with pumpkin tiramisu that was topped with pumpkin seed brittle.

While the chefs were taking final questions from the audience, I was scanning the walls of all the famous chefs who once taught at the school and the list was quite impressive. (At the bottom left corner is Tom Colicchio with hair.) If I learned anything from the class, it would be that to make a delicious meal, especially the ones that they made, you need high quality ingredients, the right cooking tools and a lot of time. I probably won't make any of the dishes anytime soon because I don't have a food processor. In the meantime, I'll stick to eating at restaurants and fantasizing about what I'd like to eat on the cooking shows.