1. At the Shake & Bake event celebrating fried chicken, a minor detail was announced at the eleventh hour: no fryers allowed at the venue, Yotel. Chefs like Joe Doe's Joe Dobias (above) were faced with a quickfire challenge: how to keep the crunch on chicken fried ahead of time? Dobias's answer: matzoh meal for his drumsticks. "The matzoh meal was key because it keeps absorbing moisture, unlike flour that can go flabby and nasty. When we put it back in the warming box, it got a nice crust on it again." Way to go, Joe.

2. One venue perk, however? Karaoke rooms with working televisions where a few snuck off to watch the vice presidential debate.

3. Who would've thought that Chopped-themed dinner parties are apparently the new thing? A few hardcore fans at the show's event at Marc Murphy's Landmarc at the Time Warner Center were gushing about their at-home versions and though each celeb-chef judge appeared seemed surprised, they were still at the ready with a few tips: "It's a party, so make the mystery baskets complicated without alienating people by giving them ingredients that they wouldn't want to eat...like cow brains," Beauty & Essex's Chris Santos advised. Murphy's advice? "Just make sure you have plenty of back-up alcohol in case the food is not good."

4. We had fun playing fill in the blanks at Bethenny Frankel's Cocktails Ever After party. Our entry: A lady alway checks for typos when giving out hundreds of promotional contest cards.

5. It's not a party until the Godiva centerpiece woman shows up.

6. The kids at Thrillist not only reliably bring the best bands to their annual BBQ and The Blues event (this year's headliner: Baby Soda), they featured one of the weekend's best bites -- Wildwood Barbecue's smoked brisket and cheesy grits.

7. And, speaking of Thrillist's BBQ and Blues party, host Rocco DiSpirito had a few one-liners for us. When asked what he was up to lately, the sexy chef joked, "panhandling." Get it!?

8. As always, our nod for Best Dressed at the party went to...Marcus Samuelsson.

9. As for food-related superlatives, however, the Most Consistently Delicious event had to be The Oyster Bash at the Standard Hotel, with offerings like composed oyster with frozen tomato gazpacho from Ed's Chowder House; mini oyster pot pies with flaky lemon thyme crust from The Water Club; oysters with lemon, soy, jalapeno tobiko and cilantro from the Mermaid Inn; and chilled oysters with curried tapioca pearls and Thai slaw from David Burke.

10. Finally, man was there a fun motley crew of celebrities! We spotted Whoopi Goldberg, Trisha Yearwood, Debi Mazar and Kathy Griffin hosting events and, of course, scoping out the grub.