Yesterday I had the pleasure of dining at Lily’s (the restaurant at the Roger Smith Hotel). I have eaten at Lily’s before but this was a different experience. Why? Because the Chef was cooking right in front of me! I was a guest for a taping of Lily’s Live. Every day this week the Chef de Cuisine at Lily’s has been taping a live show on the corner of 47th and Lex inside a gallery space the is owned by the Roger Smith Hotel. The live show is streamed to ustream while the chef cooks a full meal for a few lucky audience members.

Yesterday’s audience members were quite the social media crowd! The guests were a twittering bunch, @limespark @aronado @Emilyspearl @vanillabean45. The dining table was full of iPhones as we tweeted, posted pictures and toasted to the camera live.

While I was having a lot of fun I had to ask myself, what’s in it for Lily’s? This isn’t a show going on the food network with a huge budget, so why do it?

It all comes down to visibility. Not only to the people that happened to be watching on the street that day, but all the people watching on ustream as well. The live show had so many viewers yesterday that it ended up on the front page of ustream.com! This is free advertising that Lily’s gets and the show has great entertainment value to boot!

I know plenty of mouths must have been watering while watching the cooking and I’m sure some of those people went to Lily’s to try the food for themselves!

All in all it was a great meal and I was grateful to be a part of it! Special thanks to everyone at the Roger Smith Hotel, and to @bsimi for a wonderful night!