A little over a month ago my husband and I had the honor of attending the GASCO 17 VIP night.

We arrived in Metairie in time for lunch. So we decided to do lunch at Acme Oyster House.

The food was delicious as always.

After lunch we checked into our hotel and enjoyed a little downtime before having to head over to the event.

The weather was rainy and wet, but we were so excited to be in New Orleans and enjoy a good evening with fellow Foodies, the Chefs competing in the cooking competition and the elite of the New Orleans area and surrounding areas.

The event was held at Audubon Aquariums of America in New Orleans, LA. We arrived at the Aquarium a few minutes before the event kicked off. As we entered we began to see a few familiar faces.

The atmosphere was really nice, a live band was playing and offered some nice background music. We checked in and was given a cool necklace with a crawfish, going with the Louisiana Seafood theme.

The hubby & I began visiting the different Chefs that were serving dishes for the evening.

Near the door was Chef Alan Ehrich. Chef Alan had prepared a Curried Smoked Drum with Pickled Vegetables and Udad papad.

The presentation was nice. I loved that they toasted the papad in front of you.  Pretty good.

As we mingled and walked around the room, one of the servers was serving appetizers. This caprese styled appetizer was delicious.

The Caprese salad was deconstructed and served on a stick. I love it!

Among the crowd was a home crowd favorite, Louisiana Queen of Seafood 2017 Chef Bonnie from St. Martinville’s, The St. John Restaurant.

Chef Alex Harrell had my absolute favorite dish of the evening. A roasted Louisiana Oyster with an herb butter, bottarga, and cornbread crumbs.

Packed with flavor. Perfectly prepared. Yummy.

While mingling we ran across Chef Rusty Hamlin. Chef Rusty was a contestant of last season of The Food Network Star.  He is such a down to earth guy.  We enjoyed a few laughs with him before continuing on through the night.

During our time, we had the pleasure of meeting a sweet couple from St. Martinville. They were so sweet. We laughed, we ate, talked and shared stories. It was a fun evening.

I headed to the area where Chef Amy Sims was setup.  Chef Amy was teaching anyone who was interested on how to properly make a crepe. So fun!

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My husband pushed me to go and give it a try. I decided to go and try. It was so fun! I was being cheered on by my husband, Chef Rusty Hamlin and Chef Cory Bahr both of The Food Network Star.  Hilarious and so cool!

Later in the evening, the numbers were drawn for the Chef’s cooking at the Louisiana Seafood Competition on Saturday morning.  You could feel the anticipation building in the room as each Chef drew their numbers.

Everyone was excited and couldn’t wait for the next day!

We said our goodbyes and began to head out for the evening.

The sights were beautiful as we exited the building. The lights and the water features were stunning. The rain had passed and the area was gorgeous.

It was an amazing evening. We headed to the hotel to rest for the evening, because we knew it would be a long and exciting day on Saturday.

Be sure to come back and see how the Great American Seafood Cooking Competition 2017 turned out and who will win!