Cath Kerry-Food
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Contact

Words

31/7/2019

3 Comments

 
Picture
Glamorous night of restaurant awards - 900 guests, mood lighting, mirror balls, black table cloths, glinting glassware, ice-buckets heaving with beer, butter in pretty shapes,  spilt wine, extremely high heels and delicious décolletés.
​ 
Our food was uniformly excellent (900 guests!) with all pregnancies, allergies, glutards and possible phobias carefully attended to. It all worked. How do they do it?
​
That said, they must employ a bard of Shakespearian  virtuosity to write the menu. Our main course was a treasury, a plethora, a cornucopia, an abundance, a superfluity, a profusion, a torrent, a deluge, a surfeit of words, words, words.

"Herb-crusted lamb rack with pulled shoulder, skordalia, caramelised beetroot compôte, garlic-fried beans, pumpkin crisps and pinot jus."  (What about  salt and pepper? Which herbs? It could have been even longer!)

​Why do they do this?
Picture
All joking aside, I must say the dish was delicious and to use a cliché, cooked to perfection.  

​The hero, a small rack of lamb, was tender, and nicely pink inside, the pulled shoulder  an interesting contrast of texture.  The skordalia, (posh mashed potato with a hint of garlic) was a perfect foil for the beetroot in both flavour, texture and colour. The beans ensured we got our quota of greens as well as a verdant (posh word for green) component. The crisp pumpkin shavings gave a nice crunch. The whole dish was held together by a jus (posh for gravy) of balanced acidity and abundance.

It's a given surely that vegetarians will announce themselves beforehand, as will those allergic to say, seafood, gluten or peanuts.  How much do you need to know?
  • ​Are we so afraid of food, we need to know every element on the plate in case we're slipped a stray roasted rutabaga, marijuana bud or devilled kidney?
  • Is it to make it seem very, very, special?  No need.  It was delicious.
  • Is it exalting the work of the chef? No need.  It was delicious.
  • Is perhaps a surprise out of the question?
  • If you don't like beetroot, could you possibly just push it aside?
  • Does having a shopping list for a  menu, remove the element of wonder and discovery?

I was at one of the legendary dinners of the Symposium on Australian Gastronomy (1993) in Canberra where the menu was a simple list of words.
Eggs
​Flesh
​Bones
Skin
Blood
Heart​
Milk
Fruit
They knew their audience. We sat with an open mind and generous spirit of adventure. It wasn't at all scary and was impeccably produced.  "Bones" referred to a rich consommé accompanied by roasted marrow bones, "Milk" naturally was the cheese course, "Fruit" a course where the table was piled with grapes. I think I remember rightly that "Skin" referred to Atlantic salmon topped with crispy strips of seared salmon skin.

Would it have been too terrifying a challenge for today's food phobics? Would there be a worrying loss of control, knowing so little?

I recently came across the dish below at a local eatery, very different from my lamb rack or the Symposium dinner. Once again it was delicious.  
Picture
On the menu, it was "Compost".  Now that's a challenge.  Was it a hard or an easy  sell for a bunch of roasted vegetables sitting on "charcoal brioche soil"?  

This reminds me. We did "soil", in 2010. We got the idea from a book. The dish was called "Terroir". Imagine beetroot and chocolate soil, topped with a goats' curd sorbet, spears of baby asparagus poking through a snow of sorrel granita, assorted freeze-dried berries, and micro herbs (of course).  We thought we were pushing boundaries. You have to be able to laugh at yourself.

​Comment or Like (👍🏼 or 👇) see the fine print below.
3 Comments
Dale
31/7/2019 11:04:57 am

Brilliant as usual Kath and yes, I also sometime wonder if all the 'cant eat this' people are seeking attention. There is research emerging that shows the more you cut out of the diet, the more that can't be tolerated.
The dinner sounds superb and indeed what a massive feat for 900 people.

Reply
Pascale
31/7/2019 08:31:41 pm

Hahahaha! You always wrote the best menus.
Please post the soil recipe. That was amazing!

Reply
John Newton link
8/8/2019 07:18:10 am

The most important thing for the tramezzini is a very good soft white bread. and that is extremely hard to get. At least in sydney

I still remember the corned beef and pickle sandwich I had on such a bread (hardly a tramezzino) in Young. And there were very good tramezzini with exactly the right bread made at an Italian cafe in Leichhardt, long gone sadly

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Asparagus
    Books & Films
    Cookware
    Getting Together
    People
    Recipe Ideas
    Recipes
    Restaurants
    Tableware
    What We Do
    Wine

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Contact