"catering" news and stories

Spoilers! Tivo-users beware!

So there's been some speculation lately, some whispers around the blogosphere regarding a certain Bravo television show. I've heard the rumor that Top Chef's going downhill, that it's dated. I've read comments accusing the show of being bland, even boring. Well, I'll put it out there loud and clear: Top Chef is still hot hot hot.

Philadelphia, the city I now call home, had its first major restaurant renaissance back in the mid-seventies. Frog, a somewhat fancy restaurant tucked away in an old store front, and its sister eatery, The Commissary, were two of the trail blazers in this rebirth. Both restaurants closed some years ago, but they live on in a catering company as well as in this really terrific cookbook.

I inherited my copy of The Frog Commissary Cookbook from my grandmother. She and her sister often had lunch at The Commissary and occasionally visited The Frog for special occasions. They were both partial to the chicken salad they served and my aunt loved their desserts (particularly the carrot cake). I imagine that they both bought copies as soon as they saw them on sale, even though my grandmother rarely cooked.

This is a great cookbook for if you're looking for creative recipes for soups and salads (there's other good stuff in there as well, but these are the sections to which I always tend to return). I learned to make vinaigrettes from this book and often pass their coleslaw off as my own. The best thing about it is that no recipe made it into this book without the exhaustive testing that results from being used regularly in a popular restaurant.

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Cooking for a large group isn't easy, which is why many people choose to go for a potluck or to hire a caterer when their guest lists get long, whether they're planning a holiday dinner or a big party. On top of the amount of prep work and the cooking time that cooking for dozens of people can take, it can be difficult to find recipes that work because most cookbooks are not designed to have their recipes scaled up four, five or more times. The cookbook Food for Fifty is specifically designed to help those who are looking to get started in the catering business, but can also be a good reference if you simply want to be able to cook for really large groups yourself.

This is the 12th edition of a book that has been around for nearly three-quarters of a century, evolving to suit consumer tastes and technological advances in the kitchen as time goes by. The book goes into great depth when explaining all the basics of large scale food preparation, from different cooking techniques and timetables to guides to menu planning and wine/drink selection. There is also a good deal of information that pertains to shopping in large quantities and food storage both before and after the food has been cooked. The recipes include dishes in all categories so there will be something to suit the tastes of just about any group, although they can be adapted to suit different tastes or simply used as a template for new flavor ideas.

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How does a celebrity Manhattan chef who has two restaurants, both with two Michelin stars and who has catered over 400 weddings, do a wedding for himself? He takes it to Montlouis-Sur-Loire France and makes it a five-day celebration.

Chef David Bouley packed himself, his bride-to-be Nicole Bartelme, 80 invited guests, a staff of 20, and specialty organic foods from all over the world, and headed out to two leased chateaus in the Loire Valley. The multi-day feast of "organic haute-cuisine meals washed down with fine wines that included some from their birth years" was also a self-catered event, with some foodie guests bringing gourmet delicacies to add to the table. Here are some highlights:

• Wine, cheese and artisanal bread baked in an oak-fired oven by Jacques Mahou, a seventh-generation French baker.
• Classic French bistro food, including roasted veal, blood sausage and cured meat.
• 55 pounds of rare tomatoes cultivated on chestnut stakes in the garden of the chateau for an improvised lunch.
• Harry Snady brought 1990 Nuit Saint Georges Burgundy wine
• A guest drove 12 hours from Barcelona with 11 kilograms of fresh tuna
• A chef from Kyoto carried a suitcase filled with special wasabi, fresh green gingko and other ingredients not normally available in France.
• The officiating priest, Father David, offered fruit jams from his monastery, the Abbaye de Sept Fons.
• One evening, a Spanish-themed meal, cooked by the Barcelona-based chef Roger Martinez, was served in the stone-lined moat of the chateau
• Of course, there were desserts and wedding cake.

Now I just wonder what they're doing for their honeymoon.

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Likely, if you're not throwing a party yourself this weekend, then you're going to someone else's, and that's the weekend schedule from now until September. It's high season for summer soirees. And likely, the parties will be potlucks because it seems more and more that potlucks are becoming a popular way of entertaining. It relieves a huge amount of pressure from the host, who needs only provide the place and perhaps a main dish. After that, it's all out of the host's hands, right?

Not so fast. A proper potluck may take some of the food preparation pressure off the host, but it still requires a little bit of savvy planning. What do you need to do in advance? Party professionals offer some tips via the Washington Post, and here are the ones that I found especially helpful:

1. Hardy greens like Romaine, endive, radicchio, and frisee hold up better in salads
2. Less chance of food safety problems with vinaigrettes than creamy dressings
3. Place dressing in bottom of bowl, with greens on top, then toss the salad once you get where you're going - the salad wont' get soggy during transport
4. Roast potatoes instead of boiling for potato salads
5. If fruit isn't completely ripe, toss with orange liqueur for a fruit salad
6. Use frozen cubes of watermelon, grapes, or cherries to chill drinks instead of ice
7. Instead of using disposable containers, take your potluck dish in a dish that you will "gift" to the host
8. Serve Asian-inspired foods in disposable Chinese takeout boxes, which are inexpensive at party stores