Star chefs lit up the Mandarin Oriental’s 36th-floor ballroom for the Grand Feast, the biggest party of the weeklong Lucky Rice Asian Food Festival. Among the luminaries dishing Asian delicacies to several hundred guests were chefs from Daniel, Le Bernardin, Morimoto and Jean Georges.

Standout bites included Jean Georges’ buttery sea urchin with jalapeno and yuzu (though sadly, the man himself did not seem to be in attendance), and plump and crispy fried oysters with wasabi-yuzu sauce by chef Brad Farmerie at Public. Daniel Boulud’s smiling face beamed out from behind his booth, where pastry chef Dominique Ansel was serving an elaborate, Asian-inflected dessert soup.

We caught Daniel making the rounds as well, posing for photographers with a bevy of beautiful women, sampling the pork belly and radish hash at Michael “Bao” Huynh’s booth (as Huynh looked on anxiously—wouldn’t you?), and even pausing to chat with us. “I have a restaurant in Beijing and a restaurant in Singapore, so I’m excited to have a focus on Asia,” said the venerable chef. “For a premier event, I think it’s a huge success.” …

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Photos by Natasha Ryan

To fete Mother’s Day, six chefs dish about their favorite recipes from Mom.

It’s not often we’re shown the softer side of celebrity chefs. More frequently, they seem to be releasing profane cookbooks or abandoning brides at the altar—makes for better tabloid fodder, we suppose. Yet there’s nothing like Mother’s Day to bring out the biggest softie in anyone—especially us.

To that end, we’ve handpicked six top New York chefs and quizzed them about their favorite dishes from Mom, and the inspiration gained at Mom’s apron strings.

Read on to learn about Harrison chef Amanda Freitag’s third-generation meatballs; the chicken-wing dish that Kuma Inn’s King Phojanakong named after his mother; the Bromberg brothers’ mom, who was a locavore before her time; and other important culinary mommas. It’s Mother’s Day after all, so don’t forget to call yours. And maybe treat her to a bite to eat: All of the dishes featured in this story are available at the chefs’ respective restaurants …

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Photo by Jori Klein Jacobs.