There's a Newf in My Soup!: Beignets in a Bag

It's going to be another short post tonight...I'm almost through the month with a post a day for National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), but this is killing me! I really want to just crawl into my bed and sleep right now.

I spent the day in the Chef of the Fest tent at the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, photographing all 40 of the Chef of the Fest entries, as the eight celebrity chef judges tasted and scored each one. I was thrown a few scraps along the way, but felt like Trapper sitting there drooling for three hours. There were some amazing presentations, but sometimes the best things do come in small packages. This year's Chef of the Fest winner presented three beignets in a petite brown paper bag. Whimsical, but not as elaborate as some of the other platings. I took a few shots and put it back on the display table. Seconds later, all the judges were oohing and aahing and agreeing they had a winner (it was late in the competition, with only a few more dishes to taste, but I'm sure they kept an open mind while tasting the few remaining bites). I grabbed back the bag of beignets and tried to take a few more photos, in anticipation of it being the winner. However, there was only so much I could do as far as styling and angles with this one. It wasn't until later, when I popped one in my mouth (okay, I had three), that I was able to appreciate all the earlier commotion in the tent. I had no idea about the burnt orange cream piped inside each beignet, or the fact that they were fried in duck fat and garnished with smoked duck 'dust' and crispy glazed duck skin. Very addicting. Congratulations to Rich Sweeney of R-Gang Eatery!