The Caterer’s Garden- Working on the Menus
So, as I said last time, Paul asked if I would create some menus for him as a starting point. He wanted vegetables, fruit, herbs, edible flowers, and specifically mentioned a variety of cherry tomatoes. Colorful food- in that Cal-Mediterranean kind of mode- just my kind of thing. When I started thinking about it, my mind first lit on the okra plant. Okay, it’s not exactly Cal-Med, but I started out as a Southerner, and I really have a thing for okra. Also, several years back, I had seen an okra plant growing in the kitchen garden at the erstwhile COPIA in Napa, and had been captivated by its showy flower. I thought it was perfect for the plant which gives us the main ingredient for okra gumbo, one of my favorite foods, and a New Orleans specialty, because the flower would look right at home tucked behind the ear of a sultry jazz singer-even wrote a story about it-the plant, the flower, the gumbo, and the city, but that’s for another time. I paired the okra with corn (because they just go together, right?), tomatoes and fresh shell beans in a kind of succotash. Paul called to tell me that corn was not exactly what he had in mind. “It sucks up a tremendous amount of water” he said. Not a great thing in drought ridden Southern California. “I was thinking more along the lines of zucchini and eggplant.” I also remembered hearing Michael Abelman, urban farmer, author of On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm, From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World ,Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It , and photographer, say a few years back that he’d never seen a plant that sucked the soil of nutrients like corn. Probably not such a horrible thing in the alluvial soil of the Mississippi Basin, but again, in So Cal… Okay, so think like a farmer, not primarily like a chef, Gisele. So, there was a bit more back and forth between Paul and I: He couldn’t find a dwarf apricot tree for the apricot frangipane tarts which I love in the spring-“maybe berries”? “We’re already using them with Meyer lemon curd to serve with pound cake.” A call: “Hey, I found a dwarf pear tree”- an old standby for frangipane tarts – and now we’re set. Next time -the menus and what’s actually being planted. Bon Appetit!...
read moreThe Caterer’s Garden- A Special Project
My good friend Paul called me a few weeks back. Paul and I have known each other for more years than I like to think about. We met in acting class in New York City, and were neighbors- first on Manhattan’s Upper Westside, then in the Hell’s Kitchen section of midtown Manhattan. Somehow we both ended up in Los Angeles, and have moved on to pursue other creative and career pursuits. Of course, you know I am a caterer, and Paul is jump starting his old/new career as a landscape designer. He called to tell me he had been selected to participate in the L.A. Garden Show-A Festival of Flavors at the Los Angeles Arboretum. The objective of the show is to explore and celebrate the varied edible plants that can be easily grown in city gardens. Paul, great friend that he is, wrote in his description that he was inspired by me, and a favorite quote of mine from the inimitable Julia Child: “Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul satisfying and eternal.” He asked me to design a couple of “kitchen garden” menus using produce which could be harvested only moments or hours before from a terrace garden. Well, the project is on its way now. Paul just sent pictures (which you can see below) of the planters he and a friend built to house the various fruit, vegetable and herb plants. Stay tuned for progress updates. Bon...
read moreNo Caprese Salad in Winter!- Part 2
Last time I mentioned Judith Jones, legendary publisher and pioneer in the area of cookbook publishing, and author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food, in my rant about Caprese salad. So here’s what she has to do with my opinion on serving Caprese salad in winter. Jones was involved, in the 1980’s, in developing a cookbook by Ed Giobbi, an artist, and an avid gardener and home cook. Alice Waters, the groundbreaking and seminal chef in the development of “California cuisine”, wrote for the book’s cover “what is so distinctive about the cooking in this book is that there is flavor and richness here that is the product not of manipulation, but of a profound respect for what comes from the earth and a true connection to nature and the cycle of the seasons.” Jones adds her own perspective writing “I certainly learned, as I made one inspired dish after another, how, when the seasons dictate what goes together, flavors and colors and textures play off each other and create a natural harmony that is always naturally delicious.” She even mentions basil in an example, stating that basil leaves… turn tough and slightly bitter if they have to endure too much chill. So I’m sticking with my story- no Caprese salad in...
read moreNo Caprese Salad in Winter!- Part 1
A few weekends back I was in the line at Trader Joe’s, and struck up a conversation with a fellow shopper. The line strung all the way back into the aisles (it was Super Bowl weekend), so he asked me if I could check to see if there was any basil where I was standing. There wasn’t. "It’s not really basil season", I said. He then went on to tell me he was out searching for ingredients for Caprese salad. He had been to a couple of grocery already looking for ripe tomatoes. “Use the cherry tomatoes” I suggested. Trader Joe’s has a great mixed medley pack of cherry tomatoes grown in Mexico, which are fairly good year round. “My wife doesn’t like cherry tomatoes” he responded. “ I found some Roma tomatoes at Pavillion’s that are pretty ripe.” “I don’t even make Caprese salad in winter, and I’m a caterer. I lost a job once because I refused to do it.” … bemused look from him. Now I’ve seen caterers serve Caprese salad with hard pink tomatoes out of season, but what’s the point? Perfectly ripe tomatoes (and seasonal basil) are the whole point of Caprese salad, right? Of course, I felt I was right (ahem!), but I’ve recently finished reading Judith Jones’ The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food , and now feel completely vindicated. Judith Jones is a legend in the world of publishing who helped shape modern cookbook publishing. If you have a cookbook by Julia Child, James Beard, Edna Lewis, Madhur Jaffrey, Lidia Bastianich or any of several others, Judith Jones was responsible for getting it to your shelf. if you are a “foodie” at all, you will want to read this book. So what does she have to with Caprese salad? Come back next time for the...
read moreOne More Word About Brunch
Sunday brunch is a favorite meal, and it’s a great value for catered parties, too.
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