Gretchen Rossi, Erika Alexander, & Jesse Metcalfe Present at Wardour Studios' Academy Awards Oscars Viewing Party and Red Carpet, One of the fanciest TV dinners.

By Laura Medina

Oscar Night, along with Golden Globe Night, is a night of 1,000 plus stars.

Whichever film stars not nominated or not invited, stars from television and reality television or more established celebrities, they took tv watching amped up to the hilt.

These Oscar Viewing parties aren't couch-surfing in sweats, but an excuse to dress up and wear a tux then dine on 5-star haute cuisine in 5-stars restaurants...then get down and boogie at equally spectacular after-parties, grown-up proms with tons of money and every little detail down to perfection.

Real Housewive of the OC, Gretchen Rossi, was classic Hollywood glamour when she appeared at Wardour Studio's Oscar Viewing Dinner Party celebrating Women in Entertainment.

She was immediately followed by fellow Bravo reality celebrity, "Stripped" Ali Levine, pregnant and proud.

"Desperate Housewives" Jesse Metcalfe was a guest for Wardour Studios' Academy Awards Viewing Dinner party.

But the real belle of the ball is "Get Out" Erika Alexander.  She could had been sitting among her fellow co-stars at the Academy Awards itself but she choose to celebrate with Wardour Studios.  That's very nice of her.

Let's cut to the chase and get inside the party!

Inside the party, "Get Out" star, Erika Alexander clapped and cheered when the movie won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.  An historical moment in time.

The Wardour Studios toasting inside their own Oscars party.

This brand new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Beverly Hills, was built exclusively for Hollywood's Entertainment industry.

In the ballroom foyer, resplendent in ebony and gold, there's a lobby bar to refresh the celebrities who just did the red carpet interviews and pose, before entering the ballroom.  Red carpet interviews, getting the scoop, can be exhausting.  A good cocktail can revive your spirits,..pun intended.

What awaits them...

Fifty prim and proper tables seating ten people.  

Therefore, silverware placement, following the course of the dinner is important; and the guests knowing which silverware to matching each course is equally important.

This is a 5-star dinner with 4-courses with 2 main entrée choices.  After the server senses that you are done with your courses, they immediately swipe and clean away that fork and knife while continuously pouring champagne, quietly and efficiently.  Oscar time is the real-life,  All-American Downton Abbey. 

If champagne isn't your cup of tea, you can either politely notify your server or...

Politely tap to ring the dinner bell for the server to help the diners pass the bread basket or hustle various cocktails and mocktails.  No yelling at the servers during the Oscars.

The ballroom foyer is today's anteroom where they spread out the meatball and pasta buffet and the gourmet cheese and charcuterie and bread trays, for the party-hopping networkers and connectors, too antsy to settle down and watch the large screen televisions, dotted through-out the ballroom.

For those who are happy to settle down and be waited-and-served, this is what they have to look forward to.  This is the fanciest tv dinner that scribe has happily enjoyed and hope this wouldn't be the last Oscar dinner.

With the closest recipes, this scribe tries to bring the Oscar party to you, with recipes...

Seared Shrimp with Crispy Baby Artichokes in Lemon-Fennel Emulsion, dusted with Smoked Paprika Oil appetizer opened the 4-course Oscar dinner...here's the closest recipe...

http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/pan-seared-shrimp-with-garlic-lemon-butter-139797

Ingredients Nutrition

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, chopped
• ¹⁄₈ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 ¹⁄₂ lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined (21/25 count)
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
• ¹⁄₈
  teaspoon sugar
  
  
  

  Directions

  1. Beat butter with a fork in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Stir in garlic, lemon juice, parsley and 1/8 tsp salt until combined. Set aside.
  2. Heat 1 tbs oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat until smoking. Meanwhile toss shrimp, salt, pepper and sugar in a medium bowl. Add half of shrimp to pan in a single layer and cook until spotty brown and edges turn pink, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat; using tongs, flip each shrimp and let stand until all but very center is opaque, about 30 seconds. Transfer shrimp to a large plate.
  3. Repeat with remaining oil and shrimp; after second batch has stood off heat, return first batch to skillet along with flavored butter and toss to combine. Cover skillet and let stand until shrimp are cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges if desired.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Mesclun Salad with edible Nasturtium Flowers.
  
  
  Guests have a choice of picking between Caramelized Filet Mignon with Glazed and Roasted Heirloom Carrots, resting on Miso Mustard Carrot Puree.
  
  
  This is the closest recipes to Caramelized Filet Mignon with Glazed Carrots and Carrot Puree...
  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/panfried-filet-mignon-2015114
  Panfried Filet Mignon
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons softened butter
  • 1 tablespoon fines herbes (equal parts chopped parsley, chives, chervil, and tarragon)
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2 (8-ounce) filet mignon
  • 2 tablespoons chopped shallots
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 1/2 cup beef stock
  • 2 tablespoons fines herbes butter

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  Directions
  

  With a fork, combine the butter and herbs. Form into a ball, wrap in waxed paper, and chill.

  Heat a stainless steel skillet until very hot
  but not smoking.
  Add oil.
  Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the steaks.
  Place in the skillet and cook for 3 minutes per side for medium rare.
  Transfer filets to a cutting board.
  To the pan add shallots.
  Let cook for 1 minute, stirring.
  Add the red wine and let reduce until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
  Add the beef
  stock and let reduce by half.
  Stir in the fines herbes butter.
  Serve the filet
  mignon with the sauce.

  Honey Glazed Carrots

  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/honey-glazed-carrots-recipe-1938783

  
  

  
  

  Ingredients

  
  

  • Salt
  • 1 pound baby carrots
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • Directions
  • In a medium saucepan, bring
  • water to a boil. Add salt and then
  • carrots and cook until tender,
  • 5 to 6 minutes. Drain the carrots
  • and add back to pan with butter,
  • honey and lemon juice. Cook until
  • a glaze coats the carrots, 5 minutes.
  • Season with salt and pepper and
  • garnish with parsley.
  • 
    Here's the closest recipe to Waldorf-Astoria Beverly Hills' Pepper Crusted Salmon with Buttery Daikon, Red Wine Beet Reduction...
  • Pepper-Crusted Salmon with Olive Sauce

  • Ingredients:

    • 2 tsp. freshly cracked pepper
    • 4 salmon fillets, each about 6 oz.
    • 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
    • Salt, to taste
    • 1 small shallot, minced
    • 1⁄2 cup unsalted fish or
        vegetable stock, or canned vegetable broth
    • 1 tsp. vegetable demi-glace, plus more as
        needed
    • 1⁄4 cup chopped mixed black and green olives
    • 1 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

  • Directions:

    Put the pepper in a shallow dish.
    Lay the salmon fillets,
    skin side up, in the dish and
    press lightly to coat evenly
    with the pepper on one side.
    
    In a large sauté pan over medium-
    high heat. 
    warm the olive oil until smoking.
    Place the salmon, peppered side down,
    in the pan; do not overcrowd.
    Sear until golden brown underneath,
    about 2 minutes.
    Turn the salmon over and continue cooking
    until golden underneath,
    about 2 minutes more for medium-
    rare, or until done to your liking.
    Transfer the salmon
    to a warmed platter, season lightly with
    salt and cover loosely with aluminum foil.
    
    Pour off all but 1 Tbs. of the oil from the pan.
    Set the pan over medium heat,
    add the shallot and cook, stirring
    occasionally, until tender and translucent,
    about 3 minutes.
    Add the stock and demi-glace, bring to a
    boil and cook, stirring occasionally to
    scrape up any browned bits from the pan bottom,
    until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 3 minutes.
    Add the olives and parsley.
    Taste and season with salt and more demi-glace
    as needed.
    Pour the sauce over the salmon and serve
    immediately. Serves 4.

    
    

    

    
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    During the hustle of taking care of sauve
    starving diners, sometimes they leave out
    half the dessert, such as the missing
    Apricot Sorbet but here's a similar recipe for
    the Sour Cream Cheesecake...

    Easy No Bake Sour Cream Cheesecake

    http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/31/EasyNoBakeCheesecake70317.shtml

    1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust
    8 ounces softened cream cheese
    1/3 cup sugar
    1 cup sour cream
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    8 ounces whipping topping
    fresh strawberries or/and berries to garnish.
    
    Instructions
    Beat cream cheese, first, until smooth.
    Then beat in sugar then blend in sour
    cream and vanilla.
    Then fold in whipping topping
    Then finally pour batter in the graham cracker
    pie crust.
    Chill for 4 hours 
    Finally decorate with berries.
    

    

    You know you are in a 5-star restaurant
    at a 5-star party when they recognized t
    hat half the dessert is missing.
    At Wardour Studios' Oscar Dinner party,
    the servers noticed this then apologized
    by making it up for it by giving you
    a second helping of the missing dessert. 
    In this scribe's case, this replacement
    dessert happens to be this scribe's favorite
    dessert, Apricot Sorbet. 
    A decedent sorbet so rich that it doesn't melt
    immediately into a pool of water.
    Since the majority of apricots are dried,
    rarely fresh,
    here's a sorbet recipe using dried apricots...
    Dried apricot sorbet
    
    

    Ingredients

    
    
    

    • 1 cup (150g) dried apricots, chopped, plus extra to serve (optional)
    • 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
    • 2 cups boiling water

      Method

      Soak apricots and sugar in 2 cups (500ml) boiling water for 30 minutes.

      Puree until smooth.

      Churn in an ice cream machine following manufacturer's instructions.

      Alternatively, pour into a shallow container and freeze until frozen at the edges. Beat with electric beaters, then refreeze.

      Repeat 2 or 3 times, then freeze until firm.

      Soften in the fridge for 10 minutes, then serve with chopped apricots, if desired.