Chefs' Banquet: You Think They'd Settle for the Menu?

Gotta love foodies: Not content with merely adequate wine, a few connoisseurs sneaked their own bottles into Sunday's annual Rammy Awards at the Marriott Wardman Park.

The dinner for 1,600 (think Oscars, but for Washington restaurants and chefs) served up char, cheese and lamb from Iceland, washed down with lovely wines from Chile -- but not quite lovely enough for serious oenophiles.

"I've been to the event enough times to know that a wine upgrade was appropriate," said Mark Kuller, the owner of Proof, which has a wine list of 1,000 bottles. "So we brought our own." (Namely, an El Nido in honor of Spain's Euro Cup win Sunday, and a 1990 Krug champagne on the off chance the restaurant nabbed one of the trophies. Didn't win, but they drank it anyway.)

There was a beeline to Proof's table by those seeking a sip or two of some really good stuff, and Kuller brought some of it over to CityZen's table -- for Eric Ziebold's chef-of-the-year win -- and found that CityZen's sommelier had brought some excellent whites and reds of his own.

All the better to enjoy the three-hour show. The raucous crowd settled down long enough to honor a few favorites: PR maven Joan Hisaoka, who died six weeks ago, for giving the annual event its name and national profile; the entire Ali family, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ben's Chili Bowl; and a long standing O for former Post restaurant critic Phyllis Richman, who cracked the ceiling for women in the D.C. food biz.

Even the "Rising Culinary Star" winner-- the ambitious chef Barton Seaver-- got props for his gracious speech despite a nasty split with the owners of Hook restaurant. (Check out more in tomorrow's Food section.)

UPDATE

Last we checked in on Jack Kent Cooke 's daughter, she was suing his executors for allegedly defrauding her out of her share of the late Redskins owner's fortune. Now Jacqueline Kent Cooke, 20, is headed back to court: She was arrested in Boston early Friday on charges of driving drunk and without a license. According to the police report and local news accounts, Cooke and another woman were spotted by police leaving a diner at 5 a.m. with a waitress in pursuit; when confronted, they said they forgot to pay and returned to handle the bill. Officers, who said the women appeared drunk, urged them not to drive, but Cooke allegedly mooned the cops, then started her silver BMW. While being booked, she allegedly tried the do-you-knowwho-I-am line, warning them, "One billion dollars goes a long way."

It was unclear what Cooke, who claimed that a lack of funds from her dad's estate had forced her to drop out of Southern Methodist University, was doing in Boston. "She's a good kid," her lawyer, Terrence Kennedy, told us. "There are two sides to every story. At the end of the day I expect Ms. Cooke will be exonerated."

GET THIS!

· "Top Gun" fans can breathe easy: The owners of Kansas City Barbeque, the San Diego bar immortalized by the 1986 movie (it's where Tom Cruise sang"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"), have vowed to rebuild after a fire destroyed the place. More good news: They saved the upright piano on which Anthony Edwards ("Goose") played "Great Balls of Fire," the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

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"How do I describe this outfit? It's a white zoot church suit. And we usually wear this down South -- we don't bring that up North too much. . . . I wore this to my senior prom."

-- D.C. United's Quavas Kirk, telling our sports blogging colleague Dan Steinberg about the white outfit that dazzled (or dazed) the rest of his locker room when he wore it to the L.A. Galaxy soccer match Sunday.