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December 2012 |
"I met Sandra Lee at Jimmy's," said Karel. "She's from Wisconsin and is great at marketing. I can do her tablescapes really easy. I also met Bethany Frankel at Cia Bella. She's a talk show host and natural food chef." About Mario Batali, Karel says, "He came to the Aspen Food and Wine Festival in flip flops and shorts. Very casual. He made a pasta bolonaise. It was very good." And then there's Emeril Lagasse. "I had dinner with Emeril at Fetzer's Vineyard in Sonoma, California," said Karel. "He had so many courses for us! I thought he would get on my nerves because of that 'Bam! Bam!' that he does, but I was really impressed with him. Emeril is a very nice man. After dinner, they introduced me as Mitch Oddo's wife and Emeril said he loved to shop at Albertson's in New Orleans." Karel explained that Albertson's is a grocery store with hundreds of locations across the country. "Emeril did a big seven-course dinner for 100 people at Fetzer's and he used my husband's wines," she said. What was Mitch Oddo's work? "My husband was the Vice President of the total alcohol beverages department for 40 years," said Karel. "He developed wines. He met wine makers and helped blend the wine and he helped design labels and the bottles as well. Many chefs and restaurants would serve Mitch's wine with their food. He also had spirits and beer. Mitch's Scotch won 1st place at the Vin Expo in Bordeaux, France, where there were hundreds of entries from all over the world." "Super Valu, which has the Albertson stores, worked with Kendall Jackson, Gallo, and all the vineyards," explained Karel. Today her husband is a Vice President for LeVecke Corporation out in California with a home office in Victoria. "He can run the business from anywhere," said Karel. LaVecke is a company in the beverage alcohol and spirits industry, a wholesale distributor that develops and bottles for corporate brands. Because of her husband, Karel also had the opportunity to meet a star whose name is not primarily connected with the food and wine business. "We were at Clint Eastwood's ranch in Carmel when Mitch was connected with Albertson's," she said. "Mitch golfed out there in California, and we were invited to Clint's for dinner. Actually, my husband is very well known. The Smothers Brothers were also at the occasion. I was there with my baby Sam who was only five months old. I remember standing outside and I was nursing him -- I nursed all my kids until they were two years old -- and so my blouse was undone, and somebody came out and says, 'Come here. I'd like you to meet Clint Eastwood.' I must have turned fifty shades of red, and he could see I was struggling to button up and he said, 'Here, let me hold your baby for you.' Can you imagine that! How many guys would do that? It seemed very natural for him to hold Sam." For five years, from 1993 through 1997, Mitch and Karel Oddo attended the Academy Awards in Hollywood and sat in the audience with all the stars. After the show and the awards, not to mention the speeches and the entertainment that go along with the Awards, they then attended the annual dinner with the stars. "It's called the Governor's Ball," said Karel. "It's their traditional dinner." Could Karel drop a few more names for us from the occasion? "I danced with Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and John Travolta," she said with a smile. "I talked to Helen Hunt. I saw Elton John, and Sylvester Stallone was right next to me." "I should tell you what happened to us one year," she continued. "As we walked the red carpet, my husband was wearing a priest's-collar black shirt with the button at the neck and a black jacket, and I was wearing a purple dress, and all the cameras turned to us and everyone was asking, 'Who's that? Who's that?' and somebody yelled out, 'They're nobody.' I said to Mitch, 'Walk faster.'"
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