A La Cuisine!

Dinner Ramblings

It took long time to persuade myself to charge my friends $50 for dinner next weekend.  After all, if someone invited me to their place but told me that I’d have to pay that much, I would really have to be convinced that it was going to be worth it.

Although the $50 is only to cover the cost of ingredients, it’s still a lot of money and my guests will undoubtedly have high expectations.  It’ll be different than all the other meals I’ve cooked (which I paid for) where good food was a bonus, but nothing was lost if things went awry.  Perhaps it’s the loss of this safety net that makes me a bit nervous.  Thankfully, I’ll still be cooking for friends who are much more understanding and appreciative than most restaurant customers.

On the bright side, this will be an opportunity to improve my standards.  There have been a few times in the past when I’ve served dishes that I knew weren’t quite up to par.  If this happens next week, I think I’ll dump it into a tupperware box.  Quality’s more important than quantity, especially when there are already eight other courses being served.

A la Cuisine

I've sharpened my knives and have amassed pages of plans.  And now I'm ready to begin.  For the next two weeks, I will be preparing and rehearsing for two dinners that I’ll be hosting on February 4th and 5th.  They will be the first two nights of what I hope will become a dinner series, where guests are asked to pay for the cost of ingredients in a multi-course tasting menu.  By charging $40 - $50 per person, I hope to be able to host fancy dinners more often (instead of only once a year), and to also cook and experiment with preparations I otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.

On February 4th, my friend Renée will help with service and will contribute a couple of her own dishes, and on the following night I’ll be on my own.  We’ll be doing a plated service of small dishes, and tentatively, our menu will include canapés, three appetizers, two mains, three desserts, and mignardises to take home.

Experiences in Catering

Until last weekend I had never cooked for strangers.  The prospect of actually charging money for food was something I hadn’t thought much of.  The possibility of preparing food for dozens of people and inadvertently poisoning them all was a dream I had had more than once.

Fortunately only the former came true last Saturday when I catered a charity concert organized by my friend.  In total, my friends and I made about 600 hors d'oeuvres for 120 guests at an after-recital reception.  In my brief history of kitchen adventures thus far, this was certainly one of the most exciting.

About a month ago, my friend, Grace asked if I would be interested in catering her concert.  I suppose she asked based on her previous experiences eating my food, but also because I offered to cater at a fairly reasonable price of $5 per person.  In other words, my competition may have been the frozen hors d'oeuvres aisle at the supermarket.  But nevertheless, I was ecstatic to get the job, since I rarely cook for more than four or five people at a time, and had only once cooked for 20.

Happy New Year

Eleven days into 2006 and so far things are going great. Spending some time away from the city has given me a chance to relax, think, and cook.

The past year has been a challenging one for both my blog and cooking. For two things that I enjoy more than almost anything else, I was sad to have neglected them so much in 2005. Sometimes I wasn't even all that busy, but simply too tired or stressed to bring myself into the kitchen and write about it. I guess that if it’s not fun, then why bother, right?

In any case, I seem to have gotten things under control. Hopefully better time management and prioritization will provide a better balance in life. And I guess you’ll know how things are going by the frequency of my posts.

I have lots of food-related topics that I’d like to explore in the coming year. More than anything, I think I’d just like to learn how to cook well consistently. It’s my goal to not only learn and become proficient at different preparations, but to also understand the science behind the techniques and the properties of ingredients in each dish. In the process I hope to prepare some interesting and ambitious dishes, and conduct a few crazy experiments. If you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let me know!