'Top Chef' Champ Stephanie Izard Marries Gary Valentine

The Top Chef season 4 winner, Stephanie Izard, wed craft-beer consultant Gary Valentine on Sunday in Chicago and, as expected, the menu was something to talk about.

“I was blown away by the food at our wedding! We had such amazing friends put together an incredible menu that everyone loved,” the bride, 36, tellsPEOPLE.

The reception at the Bridgeport Art Center featured a “phenomenal pasta course” made by Chris Pandel, the chef of Chicago’s The Bristol and Balena. Guests, including Top Chef season one finalist Lee Ann Wong, had a choice of cavatelli, smoked eggplant and heirloom tomatoes or a rigatoni dish with pork ragu.

For the main course, executive chef of GT Fish & Oyster, Giuseppe Tentori, prepared a family-style spread of red wine braised beef short ribs, roasted black cod with grilled fennel and heirloom tomato sauce. Guests also enjoyed rosemary potato gratin, grilled broccoli with bacon vinaigrette, roasted golden beets with Manchego, balsamic vinegar pearls and toasted hazelnuts. And it doesn’t stop there! A kale, radish and hearts of palm salad in a sherry vinaigrette was also served.

“Everyone raved about it,” says the first female winner of the Bravo hit show and chef at two successful Chicago restaurants, Girl & the Goat and Little Goat.

To help celebrate the couple’s big day, Izard’s pastry chef at Girl & the Goat, Mathew Rice, created the wedding cake. One layer was strawberry Nesquick and chocolate marble with a bacon buttercream frosting, while the other contained Cheez-It cake with chocolate ganache, peanut butter and chocolate-covered Cheez-Its.

In addition to the main attraction, Izard Tweeted out a second dessert. The groomsman cake was designed as a tiny cask to match Valentine’s specialty.

And to burn off some of the event’s delectable meal, the bride and groom took to the dance floor. “We were lucky to have not only great food but a night of music that got everyone dancing,” she says.

PHOTOS: My Wedding, My Way