By Emily Mitchell/Reported by Wendy Cole

It was hardly a typical Monte Carlo menu: alligator sausages from Louisiana, soft-shelled crabs from Maryland, fresh New Jersey corn. These were among the specialties brought by 60 international chefs and restaurateurs who then turned them into culinary tributes to food critic Craig Claiborne at an elegant garden party celebrating his 70th birthday last week. "It was without question the greatest day of my life," he says. Earlier, as the chefs frolicked in the water of a decorative pool, the birthday boy was impulsively given a piggyback ride. He avoided being splashed, only to be properly anointed with a burst of champagne.