More Catering

Alright so I mentioned earlier that it's not always being in the kitchen creating fantastic and tantalizing meals.  When we have catered events, we may spend time in the kitchen, but that's only half the story.  In December we had the opportunity to cater the Nu Skin and US Synthetics Christmas parties.  Both events were alot of work, but very different from each other.  So let's take a look!

Nu Skin hosts about 4,500-5,000 people for their party and as far as planning utensils and holders for everything, we decided with their event coordinator to use disposable cups, plates, and silverware.  For an even of this size it's all hands on deck for the culinary arts students

Chef Todd addresses all the students in what each dish has for ingredients in case of food allergies and reminds us of why these events are important for us as future business people in the restaurant industry.  It's kind of a pep rally for us.

There's a lot of prep work from setting up tables and stations to filling food onto trays ready to be served.

As I said earlier it's all hands on deck and everyone has a job on the line, from greeting the guests to refilling the line to actually serving the food.  So the guests would grab a tray from the head of the table and then fill it with the items provided so it was mostly a self serve event.

And of course, no matter which stage of the event you're in, weather it's set up, stocking, serving, or taking stations and tables down, CATERING SHOULD BE FUN!  Also, try to at least get along with your coworkers because you'll spend a lot of time with them and the time goes faster when you're having fun, rather than having "work".


US Synthetic was a different story.  Their event was for about 1100 people, but it was a formal dinner with a show.

With this event, we tried to have as much ready as possible for the guests when they arrived.  So the salads were ready and waiting at each seat and the desserts were already on the table.

Here we have a coconut panacotta (a smooth chilled custard) with a mango chutney as one of the desserts.

And here we have a mini oreo cheesecake with a raspberry coolis.

This event had my class clearing the salad plates and serving the entree course.  I was in the busing station again so i wasn't able to get pictures of the entree for you.  Afterward though, everyone stayed until the guests had gone and pitched in to get the tables and chairs broken down and everything put away because the old adage is true: Many hands make light work.

Into the kitchen!

Alright so now that we've gotten the mis en place done, let's walk through a braised beef dish that we made.  We used tri tip beef as the protein of the main dish so let's see what went into making that.

Start by trimming the large chunks of fat and film known as silver skin from the meat and cut into large chunks.

Next heat a large pot and coat with a small amount of oil.  Place the beef in the pan once the oil is hot and saute the outside of the meat, but leave room in the pan so that the heat can get in between the individual pieces.

Turn the meat so that you brown all the sides of each piece.  Once all the pieces have been browned, remove them from the pot. The meat will not be cooked all the way through.  That's okay for now!

Next add the Mire Poix (a mixture of 50% onion, 25% carrot, and 25% celery) to the pot to saute in the fat that is left behind from the meat.  Once the onions and celery begin to become soft and the onions become translucent, add veal or beef stock to remove any impurities (also called Fond) from the bottom of the pan.

When the mixture of mire poix and stock has come to a boil, add your beef back into the pot.  you'll then cover it an place the pot into the oven that is heated to approximately 250-300 degrees Ferenheit and let it cook there for approximately 4 hours.  This is called a braise, when meat is sauteed in the beginning and then finished cooking in a liquid in the oven.

Your finished product should look something like this.  See how the meat is a darker brown, but not dried out.  now you can remove the meat and vegetables and use the liquid to make a sauce to go with the meat and the other components you have for the meal.

Getting Started

So, to get started in the cooking world is called Mis en Place.  This means "everything in it's place" and is possibly the most important thing to do.  So, what does this mean for you? It means having all the ingredients ready to be cooked (gathered, peeled, cut, etc.) and having all the equipment ready that you'll need to cook your dish.

Here we have an example of mis en place for an omlette.  Notice that the ingredients have been cut and portioned out and that a small non-stick saute pan is sitting to the side.  Aside from the eggs being out and cracked into a bowl, you're ready to cook!

Mis en place helps to make sure that you have everything you need so that you're not half way through a recipe and realize that you don't have some critical ingredient.  So before you start anything, ask yourself "is my mis en place done?"

President's Ball

So, to start off, I'll share what we did for the President's ball because I feel like it's important to know that what we do isn't always cooking food.  A lot of the time it's about the presentation combined with the food to create the experience. So let's get started!

Here we have some melons carved for presentation

The dinner was for about 800 guests and there was a lot of preparation for them

Here are some pictures of the appetizers to be placed on the tables.

Then we have the booths for the gala before the dinner.

 Here's a picture of the dessert

This is a picture of my class.  We were one of many that were working in this event.  Not all classes make the food, but all participate.  Out role was to assist the wait staff serving food to the guests and removing their used dishes.  I was in one of the four bussing stations cleaning plates and other dishes getting them ready to transport back to the company we rented them from.  Sometimes for the larger groups it's better to rent the equipment we need either because we don't have enough or there are certain styles needed or it's more economical for us to rent rather than buy and store all the necessary silverware and flatware.  The other classes that prepared food were working on this event for days beforehand either preparing the components to be assembled on site or preparing as much as possible and then freezing it for the event and thawed the day of the event or the day before.

Welcome

So, to start off the first post of my blog, I want to share my mission statement:

I have a desire to serve others and help them succeed.

I will do what it takes to provide for my family and help those who are important to me.

I have the need to be a great worker.

I have a love of food that I want to share with others.

Going forward i think that since food is something that pretty much everyone enjoys, the knowledge of it should be shared.  Now, the best advice i can give is to practice, practice, PRACTICE whatever dish or technique that you might struggle with so that you can gain satisfaction from this thing that you've made.  I'll do my best to share my experience with you so that you can learn from it, but ultimately with when it comes to combining and changing food, practice makes perfect.