A FEW WEEKS ago my husband and I made our way from our apartment on the Upper West Side down to the tip of Manhattan, to the Vista Hotel, located in the World Trade Center. The occasion was a Russian evening arranged by the hotel’s executive chef, Walter Plendner, who had just come back from Moscow, where he exchanged skills with the executive chef of the luxury restaurant Olimp.
After checking in we betook ourselves to the second floor, where the formal entertaining and dining rooms are located. As we arrived in the ballroom for the reception, I thought that I had never seen a larger number of rapidly emptying champagne glasses than in the hands of that vivacious assembly. Chef Plendner was busy giving last-minute instructions to his army of waiters flitting about here and there, but he still found time to greet me. Soon afterward the dining room doors were opened. The darkened room, illuminated only by fairy lights, was ravishing, and when the big lights came on, we saw tables that could not have been prettier.
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