2005: The Year of No Food Effen Vodka made the cut again in 2005, but there was nothing else edible

My Recipe Box Most Popular Recipes Holidays Quick Recipes Family Meals Healthy Desserts oscar contest Chicken Vegetarian oscar contest Video
KEEP READING oscar contest Who Won Our First Annual Oscars Food-Pun Contest? How We Did the Oscars: Food, Drinks, Tweets, Fun The Man Behind Tower Bar, Hollywood's Most Famous Maître d' 13 Ways to Jazz Up Popcorn, from Bacon Fat to Bottarga Food Scenes and Themes in the 2014 Best Picture Nominees
Once upon a time, in a magical land called California, presenters and performers at the glamorous Academy Awards received gift bags to thank them for their time and talent. From the 1970s through 2006, this munificent Eden persisted. Then the IRS came along and ruined all the fun , declaring these expensive tokens income and thus subject to taxes. In 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences discontinued the gifts. By then, private companies had already swooped into the coveted swag space, distributing goodies to everyone from award-winning actors to unnaturally tan reality oscar contest stars. The most elaborate of these offerings have been put together since 2003 by marketing company Distinctive Assets , whose “Everybody Wins” gift bags ensure that nominees oscar contest who don t get a golden statue still walk away with armloads of consolation prizes worth thousands (one year over $100,000).
The oscar contest swag bags feature an array of beauty and fashion finds (this year’s most extravagant include oscar contest a hair-transplant procedure worth $16,000 and a $2,700 O-Shot to rejuvenate a woman’s…well, you can probably guess), plus fancy vacations like a $9,000 “Best of Las Vegas” trip. Bon Appétit, however, is, of course, only interested oscar contest in the edible oscar contest items. Here’s what the A-list has taken home in recent history:
2003: The Year of Dinner for Two Some actors have trouble snagging an Oscar, but surely most can scrounge up a willing dinner date. That seemed to be the thinking behind the first “Everybody Wins” gift bag, which offered dinner for two at eight different Los Angeles restaurants, including: Opaline, Spanish Kitchen, Sona, Sonora Café, Mirabelle, and Fenix at the Argyle Hotel. BA ‘s own restaurant and drinks editor, Andrew Knowlton , remembers Sona as “one of the first places that was doing Asian-inspired crudo dishes. Oh, and it was the first time I heard about a guy named David Myers .” But since then, all of these restaurants have closed. Call it the swag bag kitchen curse
2004: The Year of Alcohol oscar contest and Chocolate Effen vodka from Holland , Kron choocolate from New York , tequila oscar contest from Sammy Hagar ? It was all in the 2004 bags. And in case those items didn t satisfy the nominees sweet tooth, there was also a Champagne-and-chocolate basket awaiting them in the complimentary penthouse accommodation at Caesars Palace, where they were also given $3,000 to spend at Palace oscar contest restaurants .
2005: The Year of No Food Effen Vodka made the cut again in 2005, but there was nothing else edible included. Perhaps that was because the swag theme that year seemed to be oral hygiene . Included were Crest Whitestrips, the Intelliclean System oscar contest from Sonicare & Crest, and a complimentary dental consult with America s Dentist perhaps to remove all the damage from last year s alcohol and chocolate bonanza?
2006: The Year of Fancy Water Celebrities delicate digestive systems are not equipped to handle the crusty old tap water us Normals drink. Instead they must hydrate their finely tuned bodies with a higher order of liquid extracted by beret-wearing French elves from a golden-ash-spewing volcano or wherever Volvic comes from. A case of H20 newcomer Hint, the now ubiquitous naturally flavored water, was also included.
2007: The Year of $1,000 Balsamic Vinegar oscar contest Scrolling through the list of edibles oscar contest from 2007, one comes across several modestly priced options: chocolate-dipped Altoids ($2.50), Voyant Chai Cream Liquer oscar contest ($25), Allie s Edibles oscar contest Comfort Sweets ($32.50). And then there s a non-Googleable brand of balsamic Italian vinegar with the inexplicable value of $1,000 next to it. Distinctive Markets told BA it was an extra gift from an Italian fashion company included with the other items, made by a friend on a limited basis.
2008 and 2009: The Years of Recession The “Everybody Wins” bags were purposefully understated in 2008 and 2009, with items focused on fun, functionality and relaxation over opulence. So it was the perfect time for the all-American mother-daughter company Jennie and Vera’s Cookies to get into the mix. There was also a brand called Booty Pop on the 2009 list, which is not some sort of naughty lollipop, but instead is entirely non-edible padded underwear.
2010: The Year of Portion Control Suave, skinny actors make us average-sized humans look like obese giants. Should we resign ourselves to the fact that their lithe physiques are the product of incredible genetics or do they actually have some