Denver Fest Kicks Off: Big Kitchens, Bananas Foster & Drunken Reprobates

Oh me, oh my. Has it really already been a year? Does my liver know it? Is it planning any extra defenses against the onslaught of booze coming its way over the ten days? Only time will tell, my friends. If you remember, last year the Late Night Lounge staff awarded me a certificate for Drunken Jackassery:

See:

This year I plan on getting the inaugural Richard Turner Perfect Attendance Award. I have some video of the man hisself accepting last year's honor, his 4th in a row (hence the re-naming) but...erm.....I left it in my hard drive at home....Yeah.

So back to this year, here are LNL Big Whigs Chris Dyer and Alex Reshetniak eyeing me suspiciously. I think it was because I didn't have a drink in my hand and thus, they didn't recognize me.

Here's a nice shot of John Sie's kitchen, with festival juror Joe Revitte (Banyan Tree) to give the shot some perspective:

John Sie is the chairman, founder and former CEO of Starz Encore Group and inventor of Video on Demand (the patent is framed in his game room). John's daughter Allison stars in Americanese, an entry in this year's festival which stars Chris Tashima, Kelly Hu, Joan Chen, and Sab Shimono and was recently picked up by IFC First Take. Allison told us we should feel free to poke around in the kitchen, so we did. We counted 4 convection ovens, 2 regular ones, about 11 burners (including a huge one for a massive, well-seasoned wok), a walk-in fridge, a butcher's block large enough to carve a Berkshire hog on and a fireplace big enough to hold a person. It's big.

Sie is a big supporter of the film fest here in Denver and every year he hosts a party in his GIANT home. Last year he had lambsicles, this year, Bananas Foster: