Entry 009 I'm Here To Taste the Soup

I once had a chef who quoted an old salt he worked with in a previous catering kitchen. The old salt would mutter in his brogue, "This caterin', tis a whole heap of trouble." Ours is a gypsy's life. We have to act fast, re-act fast and transform to fit the situation. Client tastings are an example signaling we are a special kind of retailer. Clients sample our wares.  We create representations of what things will look like.  Say Mrs. GotRocks wants a taste menu for her Pockets of Seattle Wealth Necklacing the Coastlines of Seattle  (PSWNCP) Holiday Party. Absolutely, our pleasure. Actually, it is pleasurable for us.  Cynthia, our sales manager leads the tasting from the front of house side. Clients love her. Really, they LOVE her. She listens, she calms, she negotiates, sometimes she calms some more and lastly, she promises.  Chef Pidor rolls her eyes over the more esoteric menu items we have pulled from our you know whatsits. But then she whips out enticing small plates of pure style that leads to some serious lip smackin'.

Table for one?

I did a tasting on Friday for a very nice lady doing her first fund raising dinner. First fundraiser for the group as well.  Her group has a great keynoter, Rick Steves of travel fame and a great award recipient, Bill Gates Sr. These two should bring in interested guests. Not only is it the first event for the group but they have a first time event budget. Low. Low even for non-profit. Cynthia listened and calmed and now we are at the tasting step in which I am starring. The idea Cynthia created was a robust vegetarian soup as entree. Elegant salad, table shared cheese board, some nice chewy bread polished off with a wine poached apple in rum caramel sauce.  Affordable. Different. Brilliant.

African Squash Soup with plantain crisp garnish

pumpkin seeds, lime and cilantro for soup garnish

  Chef rolls in 35 minutes before the client is due. I have raised the DEFCON level from green to blue.


 

But Chef is not sweating it. She empties her shopping bags at her station and begins her mojo. She peels the squash for the soup, an apple for the dessert and a pear as well. I do not ask her about the pear. I do not bother her at all. I only take instruction. I get the table ready, flowers, linens place settings, ice water. Chef begins to whip the ingredients in almost a blur. She is like some Sorcerer's Apprentice with all this food flying in the air round her head, round the pots on the stove. Cubes of squash, plantains, bananas, pear, apple, rum, butter, wine, coriander, coconut, spiced nuts, greens, stone fruit for the salad, limes, fresh cilantro, toasted pumpkin nuts....all dancing

Cheese Plate with nuts and fruit

Dessert

All of it whirls around her head then separates, pulls out of the whirlwind to make perfect landings on perfect white
dishes. It is exactly 2 minutes after the appointed time and everything is ready and waiting.  I go back to Green on DEFCON. We wait for the client. Now its 10 after. Now 15 minutes late. I consider raising DEFCON to blue again but that is useless, because DEFCON is only for things we can control. Twenty minutes late and the chef is making guttural noises. I call Client. I get her 92 year old mother who is suspicious of me. I finally convince her I really have legit business with her daughter and Mother informs me Client is enroute.

Client appears.  There is supposed to be a second Client, but she is a no-show. Client is nervous and a little overwhelmed over the details of her event and she is having little Aunt PittyPat moments. She is utterly charming. I use Cynthia's technique of assurances and send out calming vibes to Client. Client sees beautiful food and exhales deeply. She is relaxing.  Chef is all smiles and helps me welcome Client. Chef explains food details and points out that apples do not poach well as they fall apart when peeled. Of course she knew this and that is why she poached the pear as well. Chef rolls her eyes at me and gives me one of her glances telling me that once again she has seamlessly compensated for my graceless ignorance.  At this moment, I love being a Caterer. Client coos over soup, wants pictures so Chef prepares new bowl of soup for some quick shots from my iPhone.
Client pulls out a little tupperware container and wants to know if she can have the rest of the soup for her 92 year old Mother. Chef fills the container. You can see the container in the upper left part of the first picture.  We also pack up some salad and pack off the Client. She is very happy. Sorry about the second Client no-show and she will try and find out what happened.
And that is how tastings work.

24 hours later,  the Chef is in the kitchen working mojo over a dinner party for that night when a tiny little voice says: "Hello, I'm here to taste the soup."