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| It still amazes me how much of yourself you often put into cooking a dish for someone. If it’s done right, each ingredient is thought out, every step has a purpose. You start with a grand idea and refine it, until it is as perfect as a superb demi-glace reduced and polished from veal stock. When you go to a restaurant, the food, the menu is all about the chef! What the chef wants to feed you, how s/he wants to display his/her skills. When you are creating a meal for someone, it should be all about them. Cooking for someone is an art! It is hard, emotional work. You can't just go through the motions because your guest will know! Who’s seen Like Water for Chocolate? Everything Tita is feeling goes into her cooking. Love, anger, betrayal, seduction, passion! Cooking like that is a wonderful workout! Not just the production but the preparation, the brainstorming. “Should there be lobster and shrimp in the dish? Does the lobster make it too sweet? Or maybe eliminate the shrimp? Oh, and there has to be bacon in the salad! Oh, and brown sugar!” These are little things that I think about when completing a dish in my mind! It changes and grows, until I know that each bite will encompass all the flavors that will make my guest smile. The result is... Arugula salad with Asparagus, Vadalia Onion, Lardons, Figs and a Bacon fried Egg topped with parmesan cheese Brown Sugar, Red Pepper, and Hawaiian Sea Salt crusted Chilean Sea Bass over Lobster, Shrimp and Julienned Summer Squash with a Vanilla Butter There are also times when I like to be fresh and cook with an attitude, almost playing with my audience. A friend of mine cringed at the thought of sushi, which I couldn’t understand because I love it! So, for him, I created a non-sushi sushi menu and presented it on the plate, as if the fish were raw! It knocked his socks off! Granted, it was unconventional cooking, like ceviche and cured salmon, as I tried to stay true to the idea; but the meal also took into consideration the person I was cooking for and the fact that “raw” would not work for him. I must admit I got great enjoyment out of watching him eat “sushi!” When I am creating a menu for someone, most times I ask them to pick two proteins and build a menu around what they choose. Each time it is a gift to that person. It is all about their enjoyment! In cases where I do not ask and I simply arrive at the supermarket with an empty basket, I always take into account the ingredients that I know the diner will enjoy. This past weekend was my father’s birthday and the dessert, more so than the dinner, was designed just for him! It was a fluffy peach cake with vanilla seared summer peaches and topped with peach mousse. There is a whole section in my cookbook dedicated to the menus I have created for people who I care about. Each menu is a story. A meal I cooked for someone who was a visitor to New England: Linguini and Clam on the half shell Lobster Bisque Mixed Greens with Sliced Pears and a Vanilla Pear Vinaigrette Lobster Tail with roasted Garlic Pesto and Penne Seared Scallop on Asparagus Puree with a wedged Potato Seared Salmon with Fiddlehead Ferns and Jasmine Rice Chamomile Lavender Creme Brule A dinner party for friends last summer resulted in this menu: Heirloom Tomato Salad and Gazpacho with aged Balsamic Vinegar and Manfredi Olive Oil Baby Lettuces with Frisee, yellow Carnations and end of Summer Fruits Lobster Stuffed Sole with Sugar Snap Peas, Sweet Corn and Beurre Blanc Maple Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with slow roasted Potatoes and Asparagus Garlic Seared Lamb Chops with Chive Cous Cous, Pistachios and Seared Figs It is not always necessary, if you are creating a multi-course meal, to have every dish reflect the person; it will be wonderful if the sum of its parts leaves the person feeling understood and satisfied. Truthfully, the most basic of dishes can be masterpieces. I knew someone who said that the girl who baked him chocolate chip cookies was the one who really got it right! So it doesn’t have to be a 7 course meal or a full, colorful plate! If you have fun while cooking and keep you diner in mind, you will have all the ingredients you need to make the meal memorable! Everything else will just evolve in the natural creative flow! |
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