Oscar Viewing Party – Annie Campbell

Once again, my favorite party of the year: an Oscar viewing party with a course inspired by each of the nine ‘Best Picture’ nominees. Though it wasn’t a great year for movies, these were great movies for food. After all, two took place in Paris and The Help was filled with scenes that centered around food, creating an insane craving for fried chicken (not to mention vivid imagery for a questionable chocolate pie). And since, Barney’s Greengrass (the sturgeon king) was the location for all of the meetings between a grandfather and a boy in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I had a great excuse to splurge on the famous New York smoked fish. My show-off moment was a clock made out of cookie-cutter cut croque monsiers for Hugo. While Tree of Life was hard to sit through, it was beautiful to look at, so I knew I wanted to do something with color. Hence, a salad made of things that grow in trees. Plus, to celebrate the ‘art project’ element of the film, a raw egg sat beside the salad, representing life. Finally, the winner for best course went to the best picture winner: a black and white dessert bar for The Artist. Luckily the flavors of chocolate, vanilla, coconut, sugar & cream all fit the bill (see full list and menu below). Amy used palm leaves to create an old Hollywood feel–ala The Beverly Hills hotel–and printed bright movie posters to set a festive tone. The favor was simple: star sugar cookies flecked with edible gold and glittered gold truffles, all packaged with a custom Oscar stamp. Now that awards season is over, and I’ve seen a lot of movies that I wouldn’t normally see (um, War Horse…how many times can a horse survive?!), I can get back to my old ways: romantic comedies and too much Bravo. I still think Bridesmaids was robbed!!