This coming Saturday I’ll be “catering” an event for a close friend. After a few years of withdrawal following the death of her husband she has decided to throw a party and celebrate the purchase of a new piece of artwork (her first since his passing). The artist is a mutual friend of ours and will also be showing several other works for a “meet and greet” style party. Of course I volunteered to cook. She has a fun kitchen and a is a wonderful hostess, what more could I ask for?
I started thinking about a menu of bite size tastings. I’ve had the pleasure of attending several Third Thursday events with some great friends over at Cooking with Caitlin. Watching them churn out 6 courses of 50 plus servings in a single sitting has been a lot of fun. It’s also a great lesson in efficiency and preparation. The night flows along since there is always something new to try which helps keep people interested and interacting. Plus you aren’t tied to one spot in the room to put your plate down and keep track of utensils. While I won’t come close to the volume her team puts out in a night I will still have between 20-40 guests that night. My best friend (who is a very accomplished cook) will be assisting with prep in the afternoon and I’ve got two food runners. The bar is being covered by another friend who is making a couple of signature drinks to compliment the menu. With live musicians in the living room and a beautiful patio and pool in the back we should have a great time!
UPDATE!
I didn’t get a chance to finish this post before the event took place. I’ll fill in the details now.
The hostess and guest of honor were so pleased with how things turned out. I learned a lot and feel like I stretched myself to the limit. WIth the help of great friends I was able to pull off 7 of the 9 courses I’d planned and prepped for.
The night before I prepped a few of the items I’d need for the next day, mainly some of the pastry crusts and one of the baked desserts. I’m not sure why I thought making pastry dough ahead of schedule would be a safe idea. Lucky not only did I wrap them tightly and I put each individual round in a sealed container. Around midnight I had everything packed in the fridge and ready for the next days shopping. As I have mentioned before there is something magical about an empty grocery store at 7 AM on a Saturday morning. All the produce is stacked and waiting, the aisles are all faced and ready for you. I was on a mission and finished in record time. My car was packed to the brim and I felt like I was ready for battle.
In the weeks leading up to the event I had written and rewritten list after list and a whole schedule of what to prep and when. It was the first time I had really created a plan around food and people. I wouldn’t count Thanksgiving because if we eat 30 mins late then no one seems to notice. This was different. After unloading the food and equipment I packed I set about organizing things by dish and finding places to store the food once cooked. This was going to be the second 16 day for me and I knew it would start taking a toll at some point. As the hours ticked past and I checked each item on the list a growing sense of pride took over and I couldn’t help but see things come together.
Not everything worked out. I lost two entire dishes. I’m not sure how I would have handled this if I hadn’t been in such a supportive environment. One of the bits I was making called for corn tortillas and I just couldn’t get them soft enough to work with. Every time I rolled or folded they cracked and unwound. I scrapped the dish just as guests were arriving in order to make sure everything else went well but took all the leftovers home. Now after a week of having them for dinner I figured out how to best heat them in a skillet to roll them tight. This would have never worked in that situation which is both comforting and disappointing. The second dish I lost was a desert. The peaches I’d so carefully selected that morning were not as soft and ripe as I’d thought and they continued to be hard and hold on to what little juice they came with. All in all there was more than enough food but had I truly been hired and promised the dish how would that work out? Do you refund? Luckily I didn’t have to find out that night.
All in all the lessons I took away were simple and numerous, here are just a few. You can never have enough baking sheets (unrimmed preferably). Space, for dry goods, for fresh goods for cooking, for cooked food storage and for plating. You can’t have one without the other and you have to be careful using the same space for multiple uses. I can survive 16 hours of active work time and it feels good. Good ideas, carefully planned don’t always work out, its nothing personal but you must learn from the situation. Imagine eating each course in succession in order to understand an entire “meal”, just because its beautiful and tastes great doesn’t mean it will fly with the guest (I had far too much bread/pastry). Good help is worth its weight in gold and must be recognized. At the end of the day I feel better about myself and my work if I can see a physical object move its way through a process and then reach its final destination.
Below are a few pictures of the food you may have seen on my Twitter feed. I hope you enjoy!
Apple jicama slaw with white balsamic lemon vinaigrette in an endive cup.
Gallete of leeks, fennel, asparagus and Bulgarian feta before and plated.
Bruschetta with goat cheese and chives, pancetta, tomato, arugula and balsamic drizzle.
Portobello Wellington. Portobello caps, goat cheese, roasted red peppers wrapped in swiss chard and puff pastry.
Corn pudding mini muffins (or spoonbread if you like) topped with pulled pork shoulder and BBQ sauce.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the mini apple pies and fresh fried churros with coconut dulce de leche sauce. They were a big hit and went fast at the end of the night.
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