When Delhi witnessed the 'Food Oscars'

The way to a Delhiite���s heart is defintely through his/her stomach!
This was proved when, on Sunday, the way to a whole huge crowd of men and women���s hearts was firmly blocked, as the Times Food Guide 2009 and the Times Nightlife Guide 2009 were launched in a ceremony as warm, uproarious and well-attended as ever.
Many a laugh: Comedian Vir Das announced the awards amidst bawdy, outrageous jokes that had the audience rolling in the aisles.Along with Asin, the chief guest of the evening, anybody who���s anyone in Delhi was there. Payal Rohatgi, Zulfi Syed, Rahul Dev, Vijender Singh, PFMI Universe ���09 Ekta Chowdhry, PFMI World ���09 Pooja Chopra and PFMI Earth ���09 Shriya Kishore were also there.
MOANS AND GROANS: After the awards ceremony was over, the guests headed with single-minded intent towards the Nandiya Gardens at the ITC Maurya, to dig into at the vast repast laid out there. From coffee to chocolates, Russian to Lebanese, coastal to Mughlai, there was something for everybody. Sabina, AD Singh���s wife said she���d ���sample everything, and it was all great, but by the density of the crowd there, it seems Japanese is the food of the moment!��� Jas Arora loved the way the Nandiya Gardens, where the sumptuous spread was laid out, had been done up, in the colours of the guides ��� red and black. Asin said, ���This is such a fantastic coincidence ��� my fave colours are red and black, the books are the same colours, I���m dressed in those colours too and the venue has also been done up in red and black!��� Raghavendra Rathore started with mithai, and was then trying to make his way through the crowd that thronged the Japanese restaurants��� stalls.
Ruchi Makhni had her plate piled high with food from various parts of India when we bumped into her trying out some coastal crab curry. Ashish Soni got no dessert as he was late (not to the event but to the dessert counters). ���They don���t have any more dessert ��� I���m kinda late,��� he said. Aur sabko Vijay Arora se ek hi complaint thi ��� that the ice cream at his stall wasn���t sufficient. It got over in a jiffy! That���s when Vijay cried, ���I got more than 80 kgs of ice cream ��� it all got finished!��� And that���s how yet another night of the Food Oscars came to an end ��� some moaned as they relished their food, and the others groaned as they made way for just a little more!
Spotted: Ramola Bachchan, Krishna Somani, Alka and Mohnish Bali, Suneet Varma, Indrani Dasgupta, Tina Chatwal, Rina Dhaka, Madhu Jain, Ambika Shukla, Mandira and Angad Kalaan, Meera Chopra, Shantanu Saikia, Meyhar Bhasin, Esther, Poonam and Sanjay Sethi, Puja Nayyar, Sonu and Atul Wassan, Manav Gangwani, Shefali Talwar, Ritu Kumar, Ashima, Leena Singh, Varun Bahl, Amol Vadhera, Namrata Misra, Thenny, Reema and Shantanu Mehra, Vidushi and Nikhil Mehra, Jas Arora, Vishal Chawla, Kalyani Chawla, Gita Kapoor, Ravi Bajaj, Anurag, Talia, Anuradha and Shaleen Jain, Naina Bachchan, Simar Dugal, Alpana Gujral, Rahul Jain, Gunjan Arora, Divya Gurware, Reynu Taandon, Raahil, Kusum Sawhney, Harmeet Bajaj, Shiv Karan, Gunjan and Jattinn Kochhar, Vijay Arora, Rajan Madhu, Aman Nath, Rashmi Virmani, Ramneek Pantal and Rajat, Uday Kalaan, Advaita Kala, Dilip Cherian, Peter Punj, Divya and Amit Burman, Yasheel Jain, Nancy, Talia, Tunvey Gogia, Sameer Gogia, Poonam and Sanjay Sethi, Ala and Rajan Madhu, Esther, Dipin Bhatia, Sheena and Sanjay Sharma, Annie Oberoi, Nishi Singh