Shalmanese

What do you mean by "all the restaurants"? I think there is only one El Bulli. ← At least two

PS: Still need advice about drinks.

Nope, just checked. Definately a boy... I mean man! MAN! So... uhh... Those Seahawks huh? Think they can go all the way this year? Where was that T-bone and tool belt I had lying around? Lets go and get drunk and then senselessly vandalise some public property!

A clarification about the duck/ceviche thing. I wasn't really very clear on what I meant. I still want to do pan seared, sliced duck breast on some sort of salad and I still want to do a ceviche. It's just that I'm not sure what type of salad and whether avocado and corn for the ceviche is the right choice. Daniel I love the idea of quesadillas but the logistics of it just doesnt work out. I can only do 4, maybe 6 servings of quesadillas in a pan so I would need to fill my cooktop for a solid hour or so just to get a single course out. With duck breasts, I'm allocating 1/3 of a breast per person so at 4 per pan, I can get them out in 20 minutes.

Yes. Currently, I have 3 people to help me with shopping in the morning, 6 people to help prep on the friday and as many people as I can rope into doing the cooking on the day. I'm trying to have an "executive chef" model where I'm rarely in the kitchen and everything is delegated out. We'll see on the day how well that theory will work.

based on what I remember from ICA, doesnt he pass it through a tamis before adding the tg?

So... did a bit more thinking with a foodie friend. The vanilla creme brulee is far too boring. Going to replace it with a granny smith apple one with apple chips. Had too much chilli/lime on the menu as well so the chilli lime sorbet is going off. Had a tough time deciding on a replacement. Managed to come up with something which I think should be fairly cool: a cucumber gin sorbet. The backing notes of the juniper should pierce through the nice iciness of the cucumber. Dunno if it'll work but I can taste it in my mind. We'll see. Probably going to me more of a granite than a sorbet though. Any thoughts? Still wavering on the Duck and the Ceviche. The recipes sound pleasant enough in my head but they don't grab me like the others do. If anybody wants to suggest a modification, I would be happy to hear.

It's perfectly possible to be a foodie without knowing how to cook but I've been out with "foodie" friends who can't detect improper seasoning, off balances in flavour or just plain wierd combinations and they all seem to be universally of the type who cannot cook.

It seems to me, ultimately the best way is to just start a herb garden so you can take what you need. Other than that, Alton Browns method of using a paper towel spritzed with some water and then a layer of plastic wrap works quite well. It's inconvenient though if you want to use a tiny bit of herb lots of times.

I just noticed a piece in the Guardian by fellow eGullet member Tim Hayward which, although hilarious, seemed to hit a little bit too close to home for comfort. (edit: link here) I've certainly been guilty of making ironic food. And I will admit to lovingly gazing over my collection of animal fats before I go to bed to ensure that no harm has befallen them. But I've never gone so far as to proudly display them to my friends. Although I'm currently not set up with any fancy kit of my own, I admit to being insanely jealous of the people with sous vide machines and custom made knives and I've used the words Molecular Gastronomy before without air quotes. I think the only thing that stops me from crying myself to sleep every night is that I'm at least a foodie who can actually cook. I can safely look down on the "foodies" who never touch a pan and fall down into puddles of glee at some mediocre "resto" because they don't have the tastebuds to know any better. Good work Tim.

Onto the drinks, I'm thinking of having a general drinks table where people can serve themselves. There will be homemade Lemonade and Sangria a couple of bottles of cheap but decent red & whites some spirits with mixers, fruit juices and soft drinks. I'm also thinking of doing a mini wine pairing with the food as well for those who are interested (not everyone there is a big drinker). I'm not too experienced with wine pairing or wines in general so I would appreciate some help in this area. I'm thinking a fairly assertive white to go with the oysters, duck and carrot soup. Then a switch to a big heavy cabernet for the Shank, Risotto and Brisket. A nice, minerally NZ Sav Blanc for the Ceviche, Ravioli and Chicken then a lean Pinot for the Soup, Lamb Pizzas and finish off with some Champagne for the desserts. 5 wines in total aiming for about 2 - 3 glasses total per person at maybe 16 people. Should work out to be 10 bottles or so right? 2 of each wine? What about a basic cocktail bar? What would a minimal set be? Keeping in mind, this is a rum & coke, gin and tonic crowd, not martinis and manhattens. How much liquid should I budget per person? How much alcohol? edit: From here So for 21 people in 21 hours, I'm going to need 882 glasses or 147 bottles of wine . I hope they'll throw in a stomach pump as well.

A sneak peek at the menu as it currently stands:

Rutherglen has apparently had a huge backlog of orders since a media piece on their lamb and cannot fulfil my order . I'll get some from the snooty butcher down the road but I was looking forward to the Rutherglen.

Oh god, the enormity of this is finally hitting me. I just finished drafting a very basic shopping list and menu plan and the full scope of this project is finally evident. On my very preliminary run, my shopping list has run to 80 items and there are over 250 seperate things components to be assembled. Theres probably going to be another 30 or so things that I've forgotten on the first pass and I'm going to have to comb through this carefully and plan the logistics out VERY well. For those who are interested, I've put the excel file up here so you can see what stuff I'm going to be needing. Among other things, I'm going to be needing 60 eggs, 5kg of flour, over 2L of cream, 50L or so of drinks, about 8kg of sugar... oh god. Slowly starting to fall to pieces. edit: updated list. 110 things to buy, 274 components to assemble. 60 eggs, 2L of cream, 6 sticks of butter, 1.5kg of cheese, 8Kg of flour, 6kg of carrots, 25 lemons, 20 limes, 8kg of sugar, 21 bunches of herbs, 6 bottles of dried spices...

Oh, most definately. One of the guests has a digital SLR so there should be some nice shots on the day. I'll take some photos of all the shops I visit as well to give you guys a sense of what the food shopping scene is like in Syd and so I have some record of it when I leave.

a question: The outer skin of a truffle has to peeled before using right? If I steep those trimmings in EVOO overnight, will that be enough time to make truffle oil? Should I finely dice it? blend it? steep and then strain or dont bother straining? edit: also, what would be the difference between using a truffle slicer and a vegtable peeler?

Pretty close. I have breakfast, sourdough bread and the dips coming out before 10. A series of light, small bites from 10 to around 2ish (carrot soup, braised shanks, duck salad, oysters, Coca Cola chicken, ravioli) interspersed with sorbets as palate cleansers. Around 3pmish is when the big food comes out for lunch, the brisket, risotto and bread and butter pudding. Then more sorbet, Another series of small bites (ceviche, pumpkin soup, ultimate bar snack). This is the light part of the day in preparation for dinner and this is probably going to be when the bulk of my socialising occurs. Dinner lateish, probably around 8pm. Starting with the rack of lamb, then the pizzas, cake and some creme brulee to finish, all rich foods. should be done around 10 - 11ish. I dont want to keep a rigid schedule though. I want to keep a bit of sponentaity to it so I'm theres no absolute timing to everything. Logistics will constrain it a bit but it'll be what I think is right for that time. It's amazing how closely we have the schedule.

Lamb is coming from Rutherglen Lamb. Yet another provider which I've always been meaning to try but not had the chance to.

Lets talk sorbets. It's winter so the range of fruits leaves something to be desired although strawberries are surprisingly decent. I want to extend my range a bit from the pure fruit sorbets that I've been making. I'm thinking a kiwifruit/tamarind/lemongrass sorbet, a Chilli-Lime sorbet with shavings of dark chocolate on top and a strawberry-balsamic sorbet with shredded basil. I want to do a pure navel orange sorbet as well but that goal has always been elusive for me to capture the purity of then navel flavour without comprimise and I don't think I'm yet up to the challenge. I would infuse the lemongrass and the chilli into the simple syrup the day ahead and then blend with the fruits. Thoughts? I don't know about spicy desserts. They seem kind of gimmicky to me yet theres no reason why it shouldn't work. Also, the scallops are being sadly bumped off the menu for the bread and butter pudding.

Does anyone know what the predominant style in Australia is? I'm pretty sure most cows are grassfed as we drive past them when we go out into the countryside but I don't know how they are finished. Generally, the steaks here don't appear as marbled as in the US but I've not noticed any metallic or wierd taste. I did have 1 steak in the US but that was at an outback steakhouse out of sheer morbid curiosity and I was more pre-occupied with alternating between stifiling giggles and plans to avenge the honour of my country to pay much attention to the taste.

My guess is that it gets lost or stolen more easily than larger items like plates. This is going to be an epic 21st - I haven't given much thought about what I'm going to do for mine, but I can guarantee it will not be this intense. Good luck! ← But if it's stolen, then I have to pay a replacement fee so I dont think thats it.

Argh, how could I forget Thomas Keller's carrot soup. Thats a definate fixture on the menu. So now something else has to be bumped off, how frustrating. Who would have thought it would be so hard to pare a meal down to just 21 dishes? Right now, I think I've got a fairly good mix. 2 beef (wagyu burgers and wagyu brisket), 2 poultry (Coca Cola Chicken and Duck breast), 3 seafood (ceviche, oysters and scallops) and 2 lamb (shanks & rack). Then theres the ultimate bar snack (duck & lamb). So thats 10/21 dishes which are predominantly meat and I can't really face cutting a single one of them. Then I have 5 which are pure vegetarian, my hummus/guac/red pepper dips with pita, carrot soup, ravioli with ricotta and peas, mushroom/truffle risotto and Pumpkin, Miso, Sesame and Ginger soup. I have 3 desserts only and I want to find a way to squeeze a 4th in there. A sorbet, a chocolate based one yet to be determined and a creme brulee. I want to find a way to add a bread & butter pudding in there was well. Pizza will be both veg and meat. Then theres my fresh bread and breakfast. Theres 21. And there were still so many good things that were cut out . Bread and butter pudding, the lobster soup, thai soup, osso buco... argh, this is torture. Maybe I can classify my dips and bread as "side dishes" and therefore allow me to cram the pudding in there and still have room for 1 more when inspiration strikes. This thing is driving me crazy .

Ah yes, keep on forgetting. In light of the truffles, I'm going to sit the truffles in some vianone nano rice overnight and make a wild mushroom risotto as well. Just need to find a decent source of mushrooms in Australia .

Wagyu brisket is ordered, right now, I have 2 1.8kg briskets but I'm thinking that is probably too much so I might drop it down to 1. I also ordered 1/2 a kg of wagyu mince. I might supplement that with another 1/2 a kg or so of good sirloin mince just to cut the richness down to an acceptable level. Also, this way it gives me a easy way to get the amounts right. I'm having a hard time figuring out just exactly how much food I'm going to need. also, just talked to a caterer. Looks like I can do about $80c or so per plate, $50c - $1 or so per glass and $50c or so per PIECE of cutlery. I don't know why cutlery would be so expensive. Anyway, I'm thinking of getting maybe 4 different sets of plates to rotate through the day and maybe a mix of 50 assorted glasses. I don't know about cutlery though, I think I might have enough lying around if I ask a couple of friends to donate their set for the day. That works out to about $5 or $6 per person so $100 all up. I'll add another $50 or so for all the bigger serving pieces Total budget so far: Truffles, 50 - 60gm - $150 Wagyu Brisket, 3kg - $25 Wagyu Mince - 500gm - $10 Equipment hire - $150 edit: Would appreciate a good recipe for brisket, I've never cooked it before. Still need to figure out what to do with the duck breast and a chimchurri sauce for the lamb. Any suggestions for the rest of the menu is also highly appreciated. It also looks like I can get ramekins from this place as well so any desserts that require ramekins but not a la minute oven cooking would also be good.

Wow, whats with all the cherries everywhere? Looking forward to seeing how Z Kitchen takes off.