The Week That Was

Sometimes you get so busy that you hardly have time to look back and see where you’ve been. And then, in the odd time that you do look back, you can amaze yourself at the amount that you’ve accomplished and you marvel that you’re still standing and plugging away. Last week was sort of like that, although I was by no means alone in the journey, here is how I saw it. As always I carry my little camera with me everywhere to record everything as we went along. I never know when someone might want pictures. Like yesterday my boss asked if I had pictures from our bank opening gig at the beginning of the week. A new client for us and he just wanted to see what we did. Of course I said “Sure!” and e-mailed him pictures. Here are some. This was a butlered appie event for 250 at the new home office of a local bank just down the street from our kitchen. A beautiful venue.

The catering kitchen nook had that wonderful new kitchen smell. Would you care for a shrimp cocktail? Fruit kabob? No? Then how about….

This is the conference/dining room with a mock setup and buffets.

Then later that night when I got back to the kitchen my sous and our production manager were on the back dock carving ice for the next day’s “Spring Break Luau” we were having for the students…

Both of these guys are very good artists and Bob, the manager even sells his art in galleries and he is also a top notch bluegrass musician. They wouldn’t let me touch the chain saw.

The next day was taken up with the big Luau. Here is the Tiki Lounge and beach set up that our service staff put together. The event was also a promotion for General Mills products so we had to include as much of their food in the event as possible. Can anyone say Bisquick recipes? We did this event to give the students a fun send off to Spring Break and also with an eye towards entering it in the National Association of College and University Food Service’s annual competition to determine the best college dining special event in the country.

Drew, my ex-sous and now the garde manger guy did his usual stellar job and “Steely Pan” even came to play.

That is a beach made out of Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The smell was incredibly good. There is some Macadamia crusted chicken, some jerked Tilapia (for tacos), and coconut shrimp with crab spinach dip and garlic lemon brucetta.

And the ice turned out very well…

Nice turnout and the kids had a ball. Limbo contest, beach volleyball, several different kinds of raffles. An all around success.

The next day was a new day and a new challenge…Two VIP dinners going off at the same time. My sous and I split the difference then came together at the end to get them both kicked out with the help of my daughter.

Had a dinner at the university president’s house for visiting faculty and staff from Meiji Gaikin university in Tokyo. Did a Bento box salad App course followed by an all American main entrée and an east/west dessert…

Here we have (starting at bottom left and going clockwise: Daikon and asparagus salad with ponzu dressing and tuna, Pressed summer vegetable sushi with tobakki, Okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza or crepe) with seasoned spaghetti squash, Chicken yakitori skewer with long onion and in the center is Uni bisque.

Here is the main. Strip loin of Bison with red chimichurri, Rissole potatoes and steamed zucchini and carrots.

Meyer Lemon Chiffon with lady fingers and ginger champagne gellee. That’s my daughter putting the dessert together.

We piggy backed the bison dish on the other party and served a nice winter vegetable salad with it along with cinnamon ice cream and peaches for dessert.

The rest of the week was taken up with more mundane things like inventory, studying for Serv safe exam, and several meetings regarding the upcoming graduation season and Tulip Time festivities. I did a tasting for the governor’s staff - they are choosing the menu for her annual luncheon here in May. And probably, the most fun of all, I had a prospective culinarian shadow me for half a day as part of her project assignment for her junior high English class. Her mom is an old chef friend of mine and she chose me to be a model for her kid because she said she wanted “an awesome chef” for her daughter to learn from. Well, after the whirlwind of the week its terrific to hear something like that. We spent the day making chicken galantine, some sushi and French onion soup. The kid’s 12 and she’s really bloody good. Our future.

Looking back it was a hell of a week. I was a bit frazzled. But tomorrow’s another day and you’re only as good as your last meal. Onward.