a day in the life

Lee Schrager is the mastermind behind the nation's biggest food events, including the upcoming New York City Wine and Food Festival. Here's what he did on Saturday, Aug. 20.
6:00 a.m.: I was up and ready for the day in East Hampton, waiting for my yoga instructor to begin our morning class. I’ve been doing yoga at the house for the last three Summers with Corey, who is the ex-boyfriend of my regular yoga instructor in Miami. I’ve been coming out to the Hamptons since 1980, when I worked in the cheese department of the first Dean & Deluca on Newton Lane, and used to spend my days at the beach with Edie Beale (of Grey Gardens fame). We've rented this same house for the past six Summers — it’s a gorgeous run-down farm house on a great piece of property, literally three minutes from the center of town.

7:45 a.m.: I headed over to Levain Bakery in Wainscott to pick up some goodies for our house guests. I try and keep away from Levain if possible, as it’s truly addicting. This morning, I waited in line behind Russell Simmons, who literally buys every one of the mini brioche I wanted. I ended up bringing home some scones, blueberry muffins, Nutella-stuffed sourdough rolls and, of course, some walnut chocolate chip cookies for later in the day.

10:00 a.m.: I went over to Bridgehampton for a meeting at the Gilt City Hamptons House regarding the afternoon’s Burger Blood Bath that Ben Leventhal, from NBC Feast, is producing. I am the Chief Lifestyle Advisor for Gilt City and the Hamptons House is a project I proposed months ago, that includes bringing out over 30 of the nation’s top chefs to cook at the house this August. The morning meeting was to discuss set-up, weather back-up plans, sponsorship fulfillment, and registration.

Keep reading to find out whose beach Lee goes to!

The third annual SF Chefs, San Francisco's very own food festival, is taking place this weekend. We caught up with the mastermind behind SF Chefs, Andrew Freeman. Here's what the public relations authority did yesterday, Thursday, Aug. 4.

6:30 a.m.: I woke up and I have two little Yorkie princesses, Daisy and Tulep, so I had to take them out. We went for our morning walk and got our heads together about what was coming in the day ahead. I went back home and got them ready to be shipped to the dog sitter for the weekend.

9 a.m.: I got to the office and started making conference calls. I checked in with festival clients and was making sure everyone's ready for the big day.

10 a.m.: There was a walk through at the tents in Union Square. The key players were there: Dominic Phillips, the GGRA [Golden Gate Restaurant Association], all my team. Everyone has been absolutely incredible to work with! We walked around and went through where the ribbon cutting ceremony was happening. Basically where everything that is going to be going on for the weekend, we went over.

11:30 a.m.: I raced back to the office to do a conference call with Martin Yan and his team about the opening of his restaurant in early 2012.

Keep reading for the rest of Andrew's exciting day.

You may recognize James Oseland from Top Chef Masters. He's a regular judge on the show. The New York resident is also the editor in chief of the beautiful and informative Saveur magazine. Here's what he did yesterday, a day he describes as "wonderfully average," Tuesday, July 26.

7:30 a.m.: I started out the day with my usual bill of fare. It was ploddingly predictable. I had homemade poor man's muesli. Every three weeks my partner, Daniel, makes it from scratch. This version had oats, whole rolled oats, and nuts of many different varieties. There were a lot of coarsely chopped Brazilian nuts — which I have affection for. Also dried currents, dried apples, and dried raisins. Daniel teaches ESL in New Jersey and he has to leave early at 5:30. What he does, the night before, is he makes two bowls of muesli and he leaves one in the fridge for me. I bring it out and put it on the counter and let it come to room temperature. I added kefir and some milk, along with my new obsession: fruit from Trader Joe's.

The fruit from Trader Joe's is weirdly more satisfying than the way, way, way too expensive fruit at the Union Square farmers market. At least for now. But this fruit from the Trader Joe's that's two blocks from my house is actually pretty good. It's hit or miss and it's unfortunate that it's prepackaged, so you can't smell it, but you can get some shockingly good fruit. I threw in some apricots and white nectarines that I chopped up and they were very delicious and very sweet. I put some cinnamon sprinkles on the cereal too. Alongside, I had a cup of PG Tips tea with a lot of sugar and a lot milk.

Keep reading to see what James did with the Trader Joe's fruit later in the day.

Zach Calkins is Senior Vice President of Culinary Innovation at sandwich chain Quiznos, where he tracks food trends and develops new products for the sandwich market. Here's what he did on Monday, July 18.

6:30 a.m.: I got up, made a latte, and let Hazy, my labrador, out. I started thinking about the day, what I had to get done. I fed Hazy, and was out the door by 7:30, heading downtown to the corporate office on my bike.

7:45 a.m.: It was a big product showing day in the office: I had to present to the team what we're going to be doing for September and October, based on consumer research and studies we'd conducted online.

If we're going to bring in a new product, our vendors need eight weeks to get everything made and into our 2,600 stores. Yesterday was the drop dead date. I finalized my recipes and the prep list for my team to get ready.

Keep reading to learn about the new menu items Zach's been creating for Quiznos.

Traci Des Jardins is a San Francisco based chef and restaurateur. She has three very different eateries: upscale Jardinière, Mexican Mijita, and ballpark-based Public House. Her fourth restaurant, Manzanita, is in Lake Tahoe at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. You may recognize Jardins from Top Chef Masters, where she made it to the final episode. Here is what she did yesterday, Sunday, June 26.

7:00 a.m.: I was in Tahoe. I drove up Saturday evening and woke up on Sunday early.

8:00 a.m.: I spent the whole day in the kitchen working out new dishes with my chef and sous chef. We're working on debuting a whole new menu. It's going to be put in place on July 7th. The seasons up there are different; it's basically going from Winter to Summer.

11:00 a.m.: I was tasting food all day long. I tasted a dozen different dishes, so I didn't really have lunch or anything. I started with the breakfast dishes. I tasted the huevos rancheros from the new breakfast menu. I tasted the egg-in-a-hole — it's a new dish.

1:00 p.m.: From the lunch and dinner menu I tasted the halibut with sweet melon and cucumber. Let's see. We also tried the new sea bass dish with baby fennel and saffron potatoes.

To find out what else Traci ate and what she made herself for dinner, keep reading.

Welcome to our new series A Day in the Life, where we examine at what it's like to be a professional in the food industry. In honor of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, we look at a day in the life of Kate Krader. As the magazine's restaurant editor, Kate is a girl about town and friend to many chefs. Here's what she did yesterday, Thursday, June 15.

Disclaimer: This is not a normal day in my life. This is the first day of Aspen.

6:30 a.m.: I woke up at 6:30, which is earlier than normal for me at my house in Brooklyn. There was a car waiting to take me to the Westchester airport. I don't normally go to this airport.

7:30 a.m.: I was in the car for one hour, which is too much time to be in the car. Last year for the Classic, we got two private planes that flew direct from New York to Aspen with a bunch of chefs. This year it was the same, so I boarded a Bombardier Global with Michael Symon, Jonathan Waxman, Daniel Boulud, Paul Grieco (he's a sommelier at Terroir), Michael White, Danny Meyer, Marcus Samuelsson, and a bunch more people.

10:30 a.m.: Wheels were up at 10:30, and the plane was super deluxe. This is going to sound obnoxious, but it's true: the Krug wasn't chilled, so we had to wait for it to chill. They had these great vegetables and dip and an awesome caprese salad with burrata. The tomatoes were really ripe. You can do whatever you want on a private plane. You can watch TV or hang in the bedroom. The cool thing about the Bombardier plane is that they can change the pressure in the cabin so that the food actually tastes really good. When you fly in a normal plane, the cabin pressure changes the way things taste; food tastes duller, bad. But in a private plane, they can change it so it tastes good.

To find out what fabulous things Kate did when she arrived in Aspen, keep reading!

Since my lil guy was born, people frequently ask me what being a mom of three is like. I usually answer that it's sort of like having two kids, but crazier — we're (my husband and I are) out numbered, the rewards are greater, my days are fuller and the unexpected continues to happen. I also can't imagine my life being any other way. Here are a couple of examples.

• The other night, my husband was working so I gave the kids baths before we sat down to dinner. We were about 10 minutes into eating, when I realized I was the only one clothed.
• I have a mini heart attack every time my baby pulls a blanket over his head even though he erupts in a fit of laughter while playing Houdini to get out.
• My daughter thinks "being tricky" is genetic and credits her prankster ways to her aunt and uncle. She tells her brother that his stuffed tiger comes alive at night so I have a three-foot striped beast sleeping in the hallway
• When my three-year-old gets really upset he "fires" people. But, if you sense it coming and tell him you quit, he runs off like a wounded CEO. Maybe he's the next Donald Trump?
• I had to take my kids to Costco during its peak hour last Saturday to shop for a party and emerged with $300 worth of stuff, my daughter riding the cart like a scooter, my preschooler in the front seat, my baby in a carrier and a look of relief on my face. But, it was too early to declare victory because right when I was about to, my son had to pee and I realized my lil guy had thrown up all over me.

What is a day in your life like?