Fashion's hottest food fad
Pot pie is so hot right now. That's according to TheNew York Times, which today pronounced the home-style dish the hottest food in the fashion industry.
Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa likes his with lobster filling. Barney's photographer Stephanie Elgort likes her with celery root. And supermodel Coco Rocha, takes hers the old-fashioned way: loaded with piping-hot chicken. Variations of the dish have appeared on the menu of major fashion functions throughout the year, despite their high-calorie content. Rocha even blogged: "We were treated to what we all agreed was probably the best chicken potpie anyone had ever tasted. Of course, none of the fashion people at the table dared to be the one to finish the whole thing."
Food has its moments just like designers and it seems both are subject to the same arbiter of taste: Anna Wintour. "It's Anna Wintour's favorite dish because it's quick to serve and moves things right along," her private chef, Hank Tomashevski, told the Times. "It's got everything you need in there, vegetables and a meat for meat-eaters, in one course." He put it on the menu of the Vogue Awards, and from there it become the dish du jour at style celebrations.
The latest pot-pie fashion event was in honor of Katie Holmes' new line of clothes. Mick Jagger and longtime partner designer L'wren Scott also ordered up the dish for her recent collection unveiling. The consensus is that it's fancy fast food that's easy to serve during a quickie runway event. But it's also got the one thing every fad food needs: kitsch factor.
Pot pie is sloppy, fattening, home-style American, and everything you don't equate with exclusive couture circles. It's as ironic as retro t-shirts and five-figure flip flops. And fashion loves irony.
But like runway trends, what's cooking on the exclusive dinner tables of style savants may not become a full-blown national obsession for some time. Right now, the biggest food fad nationwide is bacon, according to the Associated Press. It's being used to flavor everything from pasta to chocolate.
Most food trends start with creative chefs who then get a little celebrity exposure. Magnolia Bakery was already a New York favorite but "Sex and the City's" visit to the shop put cupcakes on the global map. Soon wedding cakes were being replaced by piles of mini frosted treats. The pot pie re-invention has been credited to the John DeLucie, chef at Waverly Inn in New York, who concocted the menu option for his high-profile clientele. It wasn't long before Mick Jagger was pictured surrounded by models and a miniature bubbling breaded dinner in a tin cup. And it won't be long before the rest of us are doing the same, maybe minus the models.
For the fashionably delicious recipe, out how chef John DeLucie makes his Chicken Pot Pie!
