Cooking to show off

[Ladybug]

I think I crave the praise and approval of others and that's why I "go the extra mile." I have run into the problem of my cooking making others uncomfortable, and this causes me great pain because all I'm really after is for people to LIKE me. And if they're intimidated, that's exactly what I'm NOT after.

Now, if somebody gets all snarky, I am not above rising to the occasion. Even then, I feel very uncomfortable (guilty) afterwards.

[lala]

Never! Really! What a suggestion!

Each month, the place where I work as a staff meeting (about 30 folks), and a couple of people have the responsibility of making noshes for all and birthday desserts for the folks who have their birthdays that month. Some people go all out, with themes (Cowboy day with two homemade chilis and cornbread, Persian day with those specialties), but some people order pizza or put chips and salsas out.

My first time, my partner and I did a luau, complete with decorations. We didn't have a barbeque pit (we weren't allowed to dig up the parking lot), but we did source all the traditional foods. The second time, my partner (different partner) and I did a Provencal theme with whole roasted white king salmon (ok, we're in Seattle) with pistou, grilled marinated veggies, baby potato salad with olives and a rose wine tasting bar. I found out that this year, I'm working with two other people in a month that includes the quarterly meeting (40 people), off site, with 7 desserts to make. Seems to me that the meeting scheduler is on to me...

Edited May 18, 2005 by lala (log)

[Luckylies]

I'm in culinary school right now. We all live to show off...I'm sorry but if my polet roti grand mere is better looking than yours it's because...naturally, I'm a better cook honestly though- I show off to satisfy myself, and thrill others. To me the two are mutually exclusive...

[Varmint]

The only problem with showing off is that it creates some pressure to perform every year, or even to outdo your prior efforts. When it comes to functions at my firm where we have a potluck, there's often a buzz regarding what "Dean made this year." Yeah, I try to impress, but I really want to share. Sometimes, the snob that I am, I just want to educate folks how good homemade food can really be.

[sheetz]

Honestly? I don't think I cook to show off. For potlucks I don't normally go all out but rather try to make dishes that are appropriate to the occasion. Of course, the problem is that my culinary standards seem to be a bit higher than most other people's, so in the end it may look like I'm trying to outdo everyone else when that's not my intent at all.

[racheld]

In spite of all due humility and the raves or justified praise you give someone else's cooking, does anyone feel that invitations have decreased specifically because of your name or your prowess in the kitchen?

Does anyone ever say they're afraid/shy/timid about cooking for any occasion where you'll be present?   Or that your talent is intimidating?   And do you care?

edited because my punctuation wanders even more than my feeble mind

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Check out this thread.

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I checked it out again---had read it last week; Post #15 was mine.

In this gathering of grand cooks and talented chefs and outright genii of the kitchen, I wondered if their friends and acquaintances shied away from "performing" in their arenas. Just wondered if that was a REAL excusable excuse.

[Matsusaka Ushi]

I definately cook to show off, but I also cook because I love to cook. Whevever anyone comes to my house I'm off to the kitchen. If you stop by for longer than 30 minutes you will go home fed.

I take particular pride in my lunches/dinners that I take to work with me. I have recently been cooking for both myself and my roommate every day (except wednesday when he insists on cooking so he doesnt feel like I cook for him every day... male pride issues). Every day people come up to see what we are eating. Its not like I'm making anything too extravagant, but its just the fact that I make the food directly before work, cool it, and package it so it will be in good shape. Often times I will bring real plates so I can re-plate the food because I'm on the night shift at the moment and I want to eat my dinner on an actual plate, thank you very much. I take pride that we are the only people in the lunchroom eating grilled salmon with a redskin garlic mashed and some young asparagus.

Edited May 19, 2005 by Matsusaka Ushi (log)

[lesfen]

We had a potluck here yesterday, but it was a bridal shower for yours truly so I couldn't participate. It's neat to watch it from the outside. It was like one of those church social cookbooks exploded in our lunchroom. LOL! Sloppy Joe's, deviled eggs, seven layer salad, etc. The hits of the party were a pepperoni roll that someone's son made, which was really awesome, and a crock pot filled with sauerkraut and Polish sausage. The lady said that she went to one of the neighboring Amish towns and picked it up. It was fantastic. Not too smokey, with just a little heat. I think that stuff was gone before everyone even got to the lunchroom.

One of my co-workers, who is actually a fantastic baker, kept going on all week about how she was bringing the best dish and that we were all going to be blown away... it was that Pilsbury veggie pizza thing. You know the one... cresent roll dough spread out on a pan, slathered with cream cheese, and sprinkled with broccoli and other assorted veggies. God, my throat's tightening up just thinking about it. If this is what I'm up against, it's ON! The next one will be in July and I'm coming in loaded for bear.

Edited May 19, 2005 by lesfen (log)

[thecuriousone]

Gosh- I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that does this. I usually start by working up 3 six course menus for between 6-10. Let the menus marinate in my mind for 2-3 days to make sure that I like the flow from course to course. Get feedback from my husband on the wine list, (Never use his choices) and prepare a meal.

My questions to you are what tricks can you pass along on keeping hot things hot being both the chef and a guest at your own table??

Guilty.  I've obsessed for the past few days about a dinner party for six on the 28th for God's sake.  I'm pirating ideas from Keller, Batali and the River Cafe and attempting to reform their stuff into my stuff.  The seven or eight courses change hourly.

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[peppyre]

I would never ever take the day off work to cook dinner for a big date. Which would include driving around the city for about 4 hours to source all the ingredients for dinner.

OK....I would. I show off all the time when it comes to food. When I was in High School, I was razzed all the time by my friends. The same friends that would heat up jarred pasta sauce and costco pasta for dinner. I have a feeling they still eat like that too. It's second nature for me. Capricorn born in the year of the Dragon. I'm a wee bit of an over-achiever

[DaleJ]

curiousone: A great deal of composition is, of course, organization and sequencing. For instance my upcoming extravaganza wil be mostly cold or room temp dishes. At least currently the hots are Mario's duck liver ravioli because home made pasta cooks in two or three minutes and the main, for now, is called three little pigs and will consist of a slice of cotechino on mashed lentles, a disc of slow cooked pork shoulder with some kind of takeoff of BBQ sauce and a fan of sauteed guanciale strips. All of the ingredients can be held for some time in a 200 deg oven. Anyway, thats today's plan.

[thecuriousone]

Does that mean you pretty much exclude saute dishes from your dinner parties? If not, what types (Meats or fish) do you include? Thanks for the insight.

curiousone:  A great deal of composition is, of course, organization and sequencing.  For instance my upcoming extravaganza wil be mostly cold or room temp dishes.  At least currently the hots are Mario's duck liver ravioli because home made pasta cooks in two or three minutes and the main, for now, is called three little pigs and will consist of a slice of cotechino on mashed lentles, a disc of slow cooked pork shoulder with some kind of takeoff of BBQ sauce and a fan of sauteed guanciale strips.  All of the ingredients can be held for some time in a 200 deg oven.  Anyway, thats today's plan.

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[thecuriousone]

Oh Dale-

You are too cruel, it appears that the program dropped the menu. I cant wait to see what you devised. Will you post it again?

Do you ever try to incorporate Jasper White's Pan Roasted Lobster into a menu? If you do, can you describe your prep of the lobster? It is usually my show off saute of choice, but I'm hampered by the prep of the lobster. I've not found a way to smoothly have a soupe course and do directly into the dish. I had posted before on another thread and was told that I could prep the lobster up to an hour before without loss of flavor or texture. Any suggestions?

At this writing the courses are:

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[DaleJ]

Messed up the last post somehow.

As of now the courses are:

1. Shrimp sandwich. Jumbo shrimp previously cooked in butter (ala Keller's lobster) between discs of grilled polenta with layers of marinated red peppers and maybe spinach (?). Sauce of concentrated shrimp stock.

2. A room temp custard of peas and mint from the Babbo book, sauce to be determined, Fabbio Picci's spicy cold tomato gelli, over my best Umbrian extra virgin oil, and a fan of leek previously slow cooked in olive oil.

3. The ravioli.

4. A cold "spaghetti" salad (from Kaller's oyster dish) of shredded cucumber, carrot and zuchini (the last two parboiled first) topped with a few strands of deep fried spaghetti. (The topping is from last month's terrific pranzo in Sorrento.)

4. The three little pigs.

5. Batali has a recipe for goat cheese balls with mint and walnurs that I think I will surround with some home made mostarda that has been in the frig for a month or two.

6. An olive oil and rosemary cake from Babbo with whipped cream.

Currently thinking of cutting all of the sauces with a token bit of whipped cream. We'll see.

Looks like this has shrunk to six courses. Would like to put something cleansing between four and five. Help?

[DaleJ]

Curious: Living on an island in the Alantic and there isn't a lobster to be found out side of the nasties in the supermarket counter. A "city" of about 40,000 without a fishmongerso I don't cook lobster often (if ever).

[PassionateChefsDie]

Does doing a Chocolate Marquise with Raspberries count knowing that you can drop it out of whatever shaped tin you like, barely present it! And then have the chocolate lovers eating out of your hand for ever more!(If the only knew how easy it was )

[racheld]

You could serve it in a bedpan...a new one, of course. We chockys would follow you to the moon.

Edited May 20, 2005 by racheld (log)

[suzilightning]

i cook because i love to. but if you are into it for the cudos DO NOT MARRY AN ENGINEER.

the potluck requests are: sweet and sour meatballs, mini franks in chili sauce and grape jelly, potato salad. at least he doesn't bring the loaf of soft white bread one of his former bosses thought was apprpriate.

when johnnybird got his new position he was told that it was tradition to bring in donuts and bagels. ok- bought 1 dozen bagels, butter, cream cheese, 1 dozen donuts. also baked fudgy bourbon brownies, nut brownies and cranberry tea bread. talked to john around the end of the day and everything was gone but the bagels and donuts.

[PassionateChefsDie]

And just for you

http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1275.html In case you haven't got 1!

Works every time for me just need to find someone to make it for me for a change.

[slbunge]

i cook because i love to.  but if you are into it for the cudos DO NOT MARRY AN ENGINEER.

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As an engineer, I wish I could argue this with you toe-to-toe. But, alas, I cannot. Certainly individual engineers may be foodists but a whole office full of them and the foodists will be drowned out to background noise by those who hold the cocktail weenie in highest regard, particularly when the weenie sauce is from a plastic bottle.

Back in the day when I would bring treats to the office, my wife would hem and haw about making something special from scratch and my answer was always the same, "all they want are cheap-ass donuts".

[Genny]

Along the engineer lines...

As much as I absolutly love my brother-in-law, food comes in basically 2 categories: 'edible' and 'not edible- add hot sauce' Cooking for him is no fun at all, good thing he likes to play cards!

My dad used to be in that category. Well, honestly he had my mom's cooking for 30 years so it is to be expected. Truth be told, I was in that mind while growing up too Now he is tons of fun to cook for since he raves about everything. I caught him sitting at the buffet table eating straight off the steak bites platter... (no showing off here! Guess what I'm making the next time dad comes???)

[lesfen]

This is sad... I'm getting married in 2 weeks. 2 words... rehearsal dinner. Maybe 12 people. I know that mom-in-law can't afford dinner for 12+, so I volunteered to have a little get-together at my place after the rehearsal. The family is doing the "you're the bride! you have too much on you plate for this!!" No no... this is the perfect oppotunity to establish myself as the premier show-off cook in the family(ies). Heh heh. It's too easy!!! Burgers and macaroni salad? Nope. Burgers and pasta salad. Nope.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?! Be gentle, my budget isn't without it's limits (I do have a wedding to pay for) and time constraints are in place.

[jzchef23]

I cook, my wife shows me off. I just do what comes naturally. It gets kind of uncomfortable some times when she does it. But I love to cook and I won't ever say NO (although I did decline to cater a Cub Scout dinner last year, because I just love to eat those 7 layer bean salads and endless pans of baked ziti-[heading for a 12 step program on that next month]).

[rjwong]

lesfen,

First, congratulations!!

Huh, I suppose you are sad about the rehearsal dinner?

Second, You're the bride! You have too much on your plate for this!!

Sorry, but I wanted to do that.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?!  Be gentle, my budget isn't without it's limits (I do have a wedding to pay for) and time constraints are in place.

I'm guessing the families have a rather basic cooking background, ehh?? Anyways, if you want to show off on a budget, why don't you try the "I just threw this together. It was no problem at all"-type of dinner.

Start with a "simple salad." Not iceberg, but one of the "European" or continental type of salads with frisee, mache, radicchio, romaine, spinach, etc. Maybe a raspberry vinaigrette, homemade, of course.

How about a "simple pasta dish?" If you don't have time to make your own pasta, that's all right. You can cook the packaged pasta ahead of time. Do make your own pasta sauce which you can make in a crock pot or have it cooking on the back burner all day. Buy some fresh Parmesan cheese, not the green container stuff ...

Add some cheese rolls or cheese twists made with puff pastry. They can be baked and frozen for later use.

See how "simple" it is. Maybe I should try this one day. I hope this helps. The idea is that you can cook ahead of time and when dinner rolls around, everything can be warmed up.

[Chris Amirault]

I'd also add some roasted vegetables (tossed in EVOO and salt, 500F until done) make great antipasti. They can cool down a tad and still be swell; you can drizzle some with lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. In the past, I've done this with asparagus, broccoli, carrots, shallots, onions, rabe/rapini, bell peppers (red, green, yellow), etc. It's incredibly easy and very impressive indeed.

Oh, and -- you are insane, woman!!

Ahem.