Celebrities celebrate Daniel Boulud’s 70th birthday with circus-themed fête
Michelin-starred French chef Daniel Boulud celebrated his 70th birthday with a surprise circus-themed soirée attended by several of his A-list friends.
Al Roker, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jason Wu were just some of the notable faces at the private celebration held in New York City Saturday night, a source exclusively told Page Six.
We hear the fête — dreamed up by Daniel’s wife, Katherine Gage Boulud, and The Dinex Group CEO Sébastien Silvestri — unfolded at Le Jardin sur Madison in Flatiron. We’re also told they enlisted celebrity party planner Bronson van Wyck to pull off the surprise.
While Daniel’s actual 70th birthday was on March 25, we’re told the party took place this weekend because springtime was too busy for him.
The room was decorated to look like a massive Big Top tent and Daniel was dressed on-theme as a ringmaster. He later had an outfit change, stepping out in a silver zebra-stripe tuxedo.
“Everyone was dressed to the nines in circus costumes. It felt like a couture fashion week party — perfectly tailored ringmaster, tightrope, and clown looks,” our source shared.
We hear Daniel’s expansive culinary career was honored with a separate food station for each one of his acclaimed eateries, from his eponymous fine-dining restaurant, Daniel, to his beloved New York City establishments like La Tête d’Or, Maison Barnes and Jōji.
Bites on the menu included strip steak and prime rib, hot mushroom soup shooters, ratatouille tian, summer squash risotto, salmon with grilled figs and fennel, chobster (a lobster stuffed into a roasted chicken), assorted nigiri, a raw bar with Solex caviar, poached shrimp, oysters and lobster, and “overflowing” trays of uni.
“In the middle of the celebration, the lights went down and guests were called to the stage where Katherine appeared with 10 backup circus performers and [she] belted out ‘The Greatest Show,’” the source shared, referring to the song from the 2017 hit film “The Greatest Showman.”
“She looked like Taylor Swift, complete with costume changes and a pop-star headset mic,” the insider added.
We’re told the crowd “went wild” and her husband rushed to the stage to give her a big hug.
Guests were then treated to an enormous circus-themed, seven-layer cake topped with sparklers that was custom-designed by “Cake Boss” star Buddy Valastro and the baker’s team at Carlo’s Bakery.
Decadent desserts served at the end of the evening included petit fours from Blue Box café, mixed berry cheesecake, peach and verbena entremet, Devil’s food cake, croque en bouche, a macaron tower and honey biscuits with pistachio mousseline, vanilla bean pastry cream and raspberry gelée.
Other celebrity attendees included Deborah Roberts and SL Green’s CEO Marc Holliday, as well as fellow celebrity chefs Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck, Stefano Secchi, Ming Tsai, Jacques Torres, Dominique Ansel, Jérôme Bocuse, Dominique Crenn and Mawa McQueen.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples