The stars are all in town for the New York City Wine and Food Festival, and several of them stopped by Food Network Magazine’s lounge party on Wednesday night at Thalassa restaurant. Sunny Anderson, Candace Nelson, Marcela Valladolid, Aarti Sequeira and Melissa d’Arabian all came by, and party-goers drank champagne and snacked on panini inspired by the October issue’s 50 panini booklet, as well as cupcakes decorated with the magazine’s logo.

To celebrate the magazine’s second anniversary, we asked the stars about their favorite features in the mag:

Marcela’s favorite section of the magazine is He Made/She Made, where two chefs each put their own spin on a favorite dish (Marcela and Chris Cosentino battled over nachos in this month’s issue). If she were throwing a similar cook-off, Marcela says she would pit Bobby Flay against Ming Tsai to see who makes the best traditional Mexican mole sauce.

Candace Nelson, a judge on Cupcake Wars, and owner of the Sprinkles Cupcakes chain is excited about all of the fall recipes in the new issue; fall is her favorite time of year. Candace says she’ll be baking up pies, cookies and, of course, cupcakes for the upcoming holiday season, and her favorite flavor combination is pumpkin and milk chocolate.

The October issue features the first article from Food Network’s newest star, Aarti Sequeira (a behind-the-scenes diary from the making of her new show, Aarti Party). Aarti says she looks forward to the reader questions each month (she answers her first reader question in the January/February issue!). She says she’s also really looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with her husband this year. Aarti isn’t a big fan of turkey, so for her, the holiday is all about the sides – sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and green beans with lemon and pine nuts. And while the meal is cooking, she always makes sure there’s an appetizer for people to munch on, like these bacon-wrapped dates.

Like Marcela, Sunny is a fan of the He Made/She Made column, because she likes to see chefs put their own twists on classic dishes, and loves thinking about how she’d interpret each dish. She also says she loves the magazine’s visual recipe index and the “My Top 5” column, where Food Network chefs share their favorite bites in their hometowns. Since she moves and travels a lot, she relies on picks from the Food Network stars whenever she’s in a new city!

Check out the latest issue of Food Network Magazine. What are your favorite features?