The catering job I've been waiting for

[Fugu]

Ummm...This is not to criticize your menu, just an observation. I noticed you had critical ingredient repeats on your menu. Unless time has changed the way menus are written, having cocoa and chocolate appear on 3 separate courses in your menu is not usually acceptable. Cocoa, cocoa nibs, chocolate consomme and chocolate on your black forest cake. It is only acceptable in a theme driven menu. But it is possible that I may have antiquated menu writing ideas and guidelines?

Edited December 17, 2007 by Fugu (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Actually, I'm not sure if it's considered acceptable or not but every course on the menu has some form of chocolate/cocoa in it. A background theme, in most of the courses way in the background, but it is there. Possibly not a good idea but too late to change it now... my prep work is done and the fun begins in a couple hours.

[theisenm85]

The suspense is killing me!

How did it go?

To be 100% honest, I was worried about the cocoa as well. To me, themes are welcome, but anything larger than 2 dishes, or a trio in one dish seems dangerous... not that you aren't talented enough to pull it off... but unless you're around super openminded eaters, you never know what they'll think

[Tri2Cook]

It went well. The customers were very happy and so were their guests. I don't know how to convey how vague the inclusion of cocoa products was in some areas without handing you a plate but it really was a background note in general. I'll give a basic rundown of where it appeared.

- cocoa rub pork tenderloin cubes w/ caramelized cocoa nibs, passionfruit coulis and ancho chile oil

That one's obvious except I decided not to use the caramelized nibs with it because...

- salad greens w/ pickled quince, rosemary and pink peppercorns

...I used them as "croutons" for this one. It was funny, quite a few people actually thought the caramelized nibs were some kind of nut.

- walleye w/ grapefruit reduction and chocolate consomme

I was worried about this one but it went over very well which made me happy because it was taking a bit of risk for dining in this area.

- chicken breast w/ chicken and smoked paprika infused butter, wild rice and warm orange-carrot gelee

There was white chocolate in the orange-carrot, very subtle but it was there.

- prime rib w/ mushroom ketchup and caramelized onions, warm roasted parsnip mousse and pan fried beets with greens

Made a small change here. The parsnips available were not accceptable so I did potato "mousse" with cream, vanilla bean and cocoa butter. I was going to do the same with the parsnips.

- ice wine gelee w/ roasted red grapes

Very lightly dusted the plate with pulverized white chocolate mixed with a little white edible "glitter" to give a sparkly, snowy look.

- deconstructed Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte

chocolate whipped cream on chocolate shortbread

kirsch cream on vanilla shortbread

spiced port cherry compote

chunk of aerated chocolate

Apologies for the lack of pictures for anybody interested. It was 7 courses for 24 people with me doing all of the cooking and one person helping me with the plating so we were kinda busy in order to keep a smooth flow. Forgot all about a camera.

[SundaySous]

Don't know if it has been linked yet but saw this in another thread and thought it may be of some use.

Index of 1,500 Naval recipes. Recipes for 100. There is an old adage, "The navy gets the gravy and the army gets the beans." Hope it is of some value.

[hathor]

Sounds great...bravo!

What is edible white glitter??

[RAHiggins1]

Don't know if it has been linked yet but saw this in another thread and thought it may be of some use.

Index of 1,500 Naval recipes. Recipes for 100. There is an old adage, "The navy gets the gravy and the army gets the beans." Hope it is of some value.

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I cannot tell you how long I have been wanting these recipes. When I left the Marine Corps, I kept the ones I liked at that time, but have been looking to replace the whole collection to use. This will suffice nicely.

Now if I can still remember how to do the math to adjust the recipes to 10 or 1000... We had to make 400 of this or 600 of that abd multiply the ingredients on a worksheet. Con vert standard measurements to fractions and decimals and such, then revert them back to consolidate quantities.

[SundaySous]

Don't know if it has been linked yet but saw this in another thread and thought it may be of some use.

Index of 1,500 Naval recipes. Recipes for 100. There is an old adage, "The navy gets the gravy and the army gets the beans." Hope it is of some value.

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I cannot tell you how long I have been wanting these recipes. When I left the Marine Corps, I kept the ones I liked at that time, but have been looking to replace the whole collection to use. This will suffice nicely.

Now if I can still remember how to do the math to adjust the recipes to 10 or 1000... We had to make 400 of this or 600 of that abd multiply the ingredients on a worksheet. Con vert standard measurements to fractions and decimals and such, then revert them back to consolidate quantities.

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Search software, there a few threads here that recommend different recipe software. Most do conversions if you ask them.

[Tri2Cook]

What is edible white glitter??

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I don't know if there are variations but the stuff I have can be seen HERE.

SundaySous: Thanks for the link, cool stuff!

[theisenm85]

So glad to hear it went well!

A question from a serious home cook with no professional experience...

How meticulously do you plan prep/cooking for the event/keeping things at temp (if applicable)?

When I'm doing something that is 1) important in terms of guests I want to impress or 2)recipes that I want to test down to the minute, I write schedules that are crazy meticulous.

Do you for professional gigs do the same sort of thing, or are you, as a professional, comfortable enough in your head with what you need to do to only have a loose outline of what needs to happen?

[SundaySous]

So glad to hear it went well!

A question from a serious home cook with no professional experience...

How meticulously do you plan prep/cooking for the event/keeping things at temp (if applicable)?

When I'm doing something that is 1) important in terms of guests I want to impress or 2)recipes that I want to test down to the minute, I write schedules that are crazy meticulous.

Do you for professional gigs do the same sort of thing, or are you, as a professional, comfortable enough in your head with what you need to do to only have a loose outline of what needs to happen?

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Wow excellent question. I am by no means a professional. I have participated in catering "events" at some one's home though as well as entertained our own guests. These don't really address timing or technique in you questions but I do hope you find them useful.

If you really want to impress your guest, are meticulous and still want to enjoy your self enlist a helper or hire one. If your other half is not concerned about this don't volunteer them. You'll be better off served if you use them to stall or deflect people from interfering with your service. Some one in your midst will understand this and be happy you have chosen them. It's kinda like hockey or basketball, sometimes ya need an assist.

Plastic wrap is your friend. Buy the commercial stuff that restaurants use. It's wider than what you find retail, better quality, easier to use and that roll will probably last you five years. Wrapping in plastic will hold moisture so keep that in mind. Nice way to hold dinner rolls but will make them soggy, like some wine they need to breath if kept in wrap. *you'll want to test this*

A dishwasher makes an excellent place to hold things at temp for many things. You run the wash cycle and time it to end about ten minutes before service. Open the door and let the steam out. You now have a vessel that should stay at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes or more. I recommend testing that.

A dishwasher also makes an excellent plate warmer. For your "service platters" or even your actual plates. Invariably some one is going to want to make a toast, give a blessing or both. You would not want to run fine China through a dishwasher but after that cycle they can get awfully cozy. *run cycle two or more times cause you don't want any soap essence competing with your art, goes for the little water spot remover thingy, make sure that damn thing is not in there*

Think about the last time you were at a wedding reception and they served maybe 200 or more. The reason your meal did not go cold waiting for every one else to be served, a blessing and a toast is because we heated those plates. Then we covered them with stainless steel covers for added insulation goodness. Think about your service ware, the covers, the stainless steel ones are for more than just looks. We've been know to warm the covers too. *I know what you're thinking, why would anyone serve and then have a toast, blessing etc... I blame our ancestors*

Ah the pizza man/woman. You patronize home delivery pizza? They owe you and if not you can buy them. Deep dish pizza, delivered in those boxes? They are designed as insulators also. They won't keep a temp for long but they will help. Need to keep it cold? Fill a freezer bag with ice and place inside the box for a half hour, two or three hours is better, one less thing to do in that last half hour. *make sure you know how to put the box together, ask them to show you, they take pride in what they do too* **don't use a box that a pizza came in, that essence is for pizzas**

Need a bigger box? Drop by the local UPS, Fedex, Postal Service or anyone else that charges to ship stuff. They will have the corrugated box you need. Preferably plastic coated. No plastic coating? No problem, wrap it yourself with that plastic wrap I mentioned above.

Cooling racks. The kind used for bread, pastry, you get the idea. They are not just for cooling. Let's say you made your Uncle "fill in name here" famous chicken breast what ever and it involved olive oil and butter. Well if you have to hold that at temp you probably don't want that sitting on a flat surface. Elevate with a cooling rack, in a disposable brazing pan if need be. *plastic wrap, did I mention plastic wrap? Will keep things from drying out while they wait their turn*

Ok I better stop now, I'm getting food service obsessive and it's almost 3:am here.

[hathor]

What is edible white glitter??

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I don't know if there are variations but the stuff I have can be seen HERE.

SundaySous: Thanks for the link, cool stuff!

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Thanks, I was looking for a bread lame, and King Arthur has one, so it's all good!

[Tri2Cook]

How meticulously do you plan prep/cooking for the event/keeping things at temp (if applicable)?

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Planning and prep go hand-in-hand. You have to plan what you're going to do to prep for it and you have to prep to pull off the plan. A multi-course meal for a large crowd can't be done, regardless of quality, in a reasonable timeframe without planning and prep. I don't think any cook of any caliber would claim otherwise and I'm far from the upper level so good planning and prep keep my head above water if the ship starts sinking for any reason. I don't keep recipes/portioning/plating plans in front of me, I've tested everything and I'm comfy with all that in my head, but I do usually keep an outline of the overall menu handy for bigger jobs. I rarely look at them but it's comforting knowing they're there and my servers seem to like having them available.

I have equipment for temperature control/holding so that's not a major problem at this point but earlier on there was definitely a lot of planning and engineering (and a bit of finger-crossing) going on for that task. On site stuff wasn't too difficult with a little planning, it was the deliver and leave it stuff that required the most creativity for temp control.