The Sweetest River Oaks Valentine’s Day Party Ever: Sometimes Champagne and Chocolates Add Up to $250,000

What: Culinary Institute LeNotre Champagne & Chocolat gala

Where: River Oaks Country Club

PC Moment: What a French-flavored soirée it was with cancan girls, flowing champagne, dinner and dance music. Students from the Culinary Institute LeNotre stepped out in their chef’s finest and baked their hearts out for the Valentine’s Day party that raised $250,000 for the Gaston LeNotre Scholarship Foundation. The foundation provides tuition scholarships to deserving culinary arts students.

More than 200 guests in cocktail attire partied through the night amid rousing Moulin Rouge style decor. At the helm were chairs Zane Carruth, Susan Osterberg and Kathrine Yzaguirre with honorary chairs Janine Innarelli and Tina Raham Stewart.

It was the sweetest of sweet nights as guests headed home, after dancing to the tunes of Greg Ciacoma and Bubba McNeely.  Their swag bags were loaded with an assortment of chocolates, macarons, cakes and petit fours baked by the culinary students.

Who: Austrian Archduchess Maria-Anna Galitzine (“Call me Maria”) and Russian Prince Piotor Galitzine, Cathy and Giorgio Borlenghi, French Consul General Alexis Andres, Ernie Manouse, Alain LeNotre, Paula Sutton, Bill Gross, Amanda and Ben Lundquist and Anne and Bob Cress.