Monday, November 10, 2008

A Cocktail Party

Friday night marked the execution of the Hansen cocktail party. As mentioned previously I developed their menu and executed the food as planned. Everything turned out great.

The Hansens are truly kind people. Not only were they extremely welcoming, they were kind and gracious as well. They own a beautiful home with an amazing kitchen! It was a pleasure, more like a pleasant dream to get to cook in such an equipped kitchen.

Throughout dinner people raved about the food. The butternut and apple soup was a huge hit, as were many others!

I prepped extremely long and hard for this event. I wanted everything to be my best work, and really wanted to exceed what the Hansens expected from me. Being that I have not made a name for myself yet, I am always striving to demonstrate my talents to my clients. That will hopefully ensure word of mouth advertising and repeat customers. What better advertising could you do then be at your very best? This is a picture of Irma, Myself and Jessica plating. Irma is a great friend of mine and a passionate cook. She always lends a helping hand when I do an event. Jessica is a culinary student of the Institute of Tech, so it was great to show and inspire such a young cook.
Brenda, standing gaurd next to the beautiful cheese plates.

Plating the course. I did the first and everyone then followed one job each to finish the remaining.
These above were olive oil shortbread, olive oil jam, nicoise olive puree, dried cherries and saffron. Absolutely amazing, salty up front and left a lingering sweet flavor of cherries on the end.
Pumpkin Consomme, Roasted Dates, Creme Fraiche

Brie Mousse, Beet Reduction, Baby Beets Sous Vide, Red Beets sous vide, Candied Apples Sous Vide, Garlic Crostini, apple fennel compote, arugula pudding, micro arugula, olive oil.

They look a little busy but I was happy with the execution and flavors of this dish. I found that each individual component eaten with the cheese alone was very good. All of them together a little bit much, so advised to each one bite at a time individually.

Chilean Sea Bass, Artichokes sous vide, pearl onions sous vide, agnolotti, barigoule, basil, lemon-Parmesan foam, Parmesan tuile.


Not my favorite plating execution. Could have been much cleaner and tighter, but we were rushed at this stage for this dish. There were a lot of components, too many in my opinion. Next time I will simplify. This is pan seared and roasted poussin that had been brined, chantrelle mushrooms, sous vide baby carrots, sous vide cippolini, pomegranate reduction, bordelaise, vanilla potato essence, candied glazed garlic. Carrot oil and powder. Whew... too many things. Sometimes a dish sounds good until you go to execute. Everyone loved this course however, so I believe it was liked. The bird came back with barely even any bones left on the plates! A good sign!

One of my favorite dishes of the night. A true pineapple consomme, infused with saffron, black peppercorns and lemon thyme. Coconut sorbet, caramelized bananas. Delicious!

Highland Farms lamb Sliders, Roasted Garlic Aioli, 4 hours caramelized onions, goat cheese, hand cut fries and Spicy Ketchup.


Milk chocolate creme brulee, chocolate truffles, brioche doughnuts, salted caramel, port poached figs, dark chocolate sorbet. MMmmmmm... good! Perfect doughnuts!












6 lbs of chilean sea bass, extremely fresh!


1 comment:

Chef JP said...

hey chef, very nice. loved the cheese course!