Monday, December 15, 2008

Cater: No Limits


I got to do a catering job that didn't restrict me financially - for the first time ever! How fun! This past weekend I catered a local doctor's office staff party. While there were some financial restrictions, they were hardly restrictive, so it allowed me to play a bit. The doc also specifically requested more playful food for himself and his wife, while also accounting for his more culinarily conservative staff.

I created, essentially three menus for them, with some shared items. Everyone had organic green salad, sourdough rolls, roasted potato wedges and green beans with toasted piñon and lemon. Then I added tri-olive tapenade set in olive oil crisp cups seasoned with anise, topped with candied kumquat:


Goat carnitas with avocado in fillo cones:


A sous vide cooked tenderloin, simply salt-n-pepper pan finished:


Sous vide tenderloin that was seasoned with molè dulce prior to sealing in the bag, and then pan finished with the same molè. While not pretty in the pic, this was amazingly good. I served it with a savory granola, hazelnut pudding with szechuan peppercorns and chocolate soil. What a combo!

I'd like to try this again encasing the tenderloin in the granola then pan finishing it. I think that would be nice.

Finally, three desserts. A traditional French Bouche Noel (I'll post on this later), a flourless chocolate orange cake, and this Tres Leches Egg Nog Cake which I spiked with brandy:

3 comments:

Manggy said...

Excellent spread Rob! That sous vide tenderloin is out-of-this world. I wonder what the culinarily conservative staffers thought of it :) I'm sure they enjoyed their party! The tres leches cake sounds wicked.

Chris Hennes said...

What is the white "drizzle"?

Gfron1 said...

I'm obviously a slave to the kitchen these days, so apologies for not replying in detail. The ugly drizzle is hazelnut pudding with szechuan peppercorns...I love that stuff!