Celeb Cuisine

Last Monday, there was something in the air at Trattoria Delia [1], and it wasn’t just the aroma of Italian cuisine. The entire St. Paul Street restaurant was perfumed with the jasmine, ylang ylang and sandlewood fragrances of Chanel No. 5.

Did somebody upset a bottle of the costly perfume? Nope. Designer and Grand Isle property owner Karl Lagerfeld was in the house, with a bevy of models.

“He mostly eats grilled salmon and pineapple,” dishes Manager Jeremy Venditto. But that day, Lagerfeld sampled a bite of the Tratt’s herbed filet, drizzled with a Barbera wine sauce and topped with truffle butter. “He liked it so much he came back in with four friends on Tuesday and had the filet,” says Venditto, who notes that Lagerfeld only allows himself to eat beef once a month.

On Thursday, the impresario dropped in again before catching a flight to Paris. That evening, nine members of his party ordered the filet, which they paired with bottles of Brunello from the Argiano and Silvio Nardi vineyards.

Are carbs verboten at Chanel meals? Apparently not. Both the seafood and wild-boar pastas were big hits.

“They did say that we’re their favorite restaurant in Burlington,” Venditto notes proudly.

The Tratt wasn’t the only place to feel the celebrity love last week. On Saturday, Jon Stewart was spotted fueling up on coffee at Uncommon Grounds [2] before his show at UVM.

The friendly “Daily Show” satirist ordered an iced skim latte and a raspberry croissant, which rang up at $6.66. According to a staffer: “He thought it was really funny, and made a joke about it.”