NYIT president/CEO
Dr. Edward Guiliano, Fox 5
meteorologist Jim Castillo and
Mireille Guiliano
Photo by Tom Ferraro | NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Food and Wine Mavens
Earn Peer Recognition By Edward T. Callaghan  HE sumptuous Professional Excellence Awards Ceremony Dinner was the highlight of the sixth annual Gold Coast Food & Wine Classic held in the Gatsby-esque splendor of the deSeversky Mansion on the Old Westbury campus of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT).
Dr. Edward Guiliano, NYIT’s president and CEO presented Professional Excellence Awards for Oenology to Warren Winiarski, owner of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley, and Fabrizio Bianchi and his daughter Laura Bianchi of Tuscany’s Castello di Monsanto. 
Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, dean of
New York College of Osteopathic
Medicine/NYCOM, and Jim Castillo
Photo by Tom Ferraro | Chef Daniel Boulud, of Daniel and Café Boulud in Manhattan, received the Culinary Professional Excellence Award. DeSeversky executive chef Robert Rizzuto presided over the lavish reception in the historic residence, situated on acres of lush lawns and gardens. Guests strolled along the porticos and library feasting on hors d’oeuvres of foie gras, salmon tartar with osetra caviar and a veritable smorgasbord of Maine lobster, crabs, oysters and caviar. Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut NV flowed freely as Mireille Guiliano, president of Clicquot Inc. (and wife of NYIT president Guiliano), looked on approvingly. 
Hank and Constance Schwartz,
executive director of Nassau County
Museum of Art | The awardees did double duty helping noted auctioneer David Reynolds with over 40 lots, including rare wines and wine tours, trips to Italy, Mexico, elegant spas and Champagne Veuve Cliquot’s exclusive “Yelloween” party at the San Francisco Ritz Carlton. The evening, the culmination of several days of tastings and an exclusive winemakers’ and chefs’ dinner at Daniel, raised over $470,000 for NYIT’s college scholarship programs. Among the glittering crowd were Angela Anton, Joy Billhardt, Richard Elia, Roger Gimbel, Tom Jurgielewicz, Phyllis and Stanley Kreitman, Brian Shore, and Fox Five’s Jim Castillo. | 
