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Here's my goal...

susan_fox_33805

I'm sharing my sous vide passion with office mates. They are either bemused, intrigued, enthusiastic or indifferent. You should have seen me today parading the newly delivered Modernist Cuisine at Home :-)

Once I'm more confident with the process I want to cook a meal for them, probably a total of 20-30 people. I'm a good cook but not nearly as advanced as most here. Any tips or suggested future menus focused toward my middling talent will be warmly welcomed. The goal here is to know where to center energies toward achieving this future Babette's Feast. How best to plan and progress as a newbie? I'm convinced sous vide is perfect for those who hate to cook and those who love to cook. I'd love to coach the hate-to-cookers who would benefit from wholesome effortless food.

Office mates are poised to get excited about this technique. I want to stoke that flame but first I've got a lot of work to do.

Thanks in advance.

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Comments

seijoed

I'd think in terms of

* How long a dish will take to put out

* How many courses - Or if it is only one,

* For 20-30 people you are going to want to / need to utilize several techniques in a regular kitchen with just 4 burners and one oven.

* What you can cook and chill

* What you can do the day before, what can be done and held

* Some sort of continuity in the menu (Steal from restaurants)

seijoed

Let's put it this way, if you use the oven to make really good gratin,

finish sous-vide cooked veg on the stove and have some nice steak you just finish searing and slice after it is rested.

The day before you could make a great stock, make a sauce with that - can be reheated.

A custard can be done in advance and just served and so on.

Mason_Perry_34060

The most I have served sous vide is 12 people 5 courses, the salad and the dessert were not made in the sous vide. I think the thing that I learned most from it was the value of a holding vessel since my appetizer, soup and protein as well as veggies for the main course were all cooked sous vide at different temperatures. This meant 4 temps and 4 different times ranging from 48 hours to 15 min. This may mean that you want to start a day or two out and cook the highest temp item you will be serving first, then second highest, then third ans so on until you reach the lowest temperature, this means that you can add the precooked items for example short ribs cooked for 48 hours at 140F to the bath to reheat. If you add it to say a bath at 133F that is cooking main course protein, you will heat the short ribs without over cooking them. I have done this with protein, soup, and veggies (most of my veggies are cooked a day or two in advance since juggling 185F for veggies and 133F for medium rare steak can be a pain. It sounds confusing but all I do is list my menu in order from highest cooking temp to lowest cooking temp and that is the order that I cook stuff in.

I also use an ice chest filled with hot water to hold items before I plate them, a good ice chest will keep temp within 5F for several hours if you don't leave teh lid open, I leave it on the counter by the sink so that I can easily add hot water to keep temp if needed.

Another thing I ran into was lack of plates, meaning I was actually cleaning plates between courses to get clean plates to plate the next course. This can easily be avoided if you choose to serve on plastic plates which I have done for other meals where I was expecting 30+ people.

I would also keep it simple and choose menu items you are comfortable with. I never make anything for guests that I haven't made for myself atleast twice. Not only do I get to be a guinea pig and wat good food but it's a lot easier to work out kinks when there are 2 or 4 people to serve instead of 30, plus simple success is more impressive than complicated disaster.

Last, try to do as much as possible before the day of service, I do practically everything in advance, down to chopping garnishes, making and finishing soups, finishing dessert, organizing plating, figuring out wine parings if needed. This means the day of service all I have to do is cut open bags and dry (sear if needed) then plate. The only thing I don't cook ahead of time is Lobster Sous Vide and Hollandaise sauce or anything that might seperate, other than that I try to have everything else done the day before, that way if you did for any reason make a mistake or forget anything you atleast have one day to fix or replace the issue. It hasn't happened to me yet but if it does I would rather have an OH $H!T moment the day before the service not the day of.

Lastly have fun! You're not a professional caterer and not making big bucks off this (unless you are in which case good for you!) so keep it low pressure, set yourself up for success and make sure you are enjoying it because it should be fun. I wouldn't host dinners or guest chef at peoples houses if I didn't enjoy it, but i really like sharing good food with people, especially new and interesting ways of cooking like Sous Vide.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

susan_fox_33805

I knew you all would be a fount of wisdom. This helps a lot and I will keep you posted. Not sure when this will take place but I always need plenty of lead time to think things through. This is very helpful and appreciated.

seijoed

I just thought of a few other ones from doing catering.

A foldout six top table will give you the counter space most places doesn't have.

And one or two asian butane stoves the heat source that always seems to be missing.

Bring your own tools and pans - I buy all my kitchen gear at restaurant supply stores and just make sure I season pans well, it'll cost you $12-15 for a decent skillet instead of $70 at a kitchen store.

Chris_Young_80640

@Susan – We'll all be happy to help, but I recommend practicing the meal you plan to serve a few times for 6 to 8 people. It will really help you understand what will and won't work. Having dishes that are served chilled, can be pre-plated, and so on will be critical to pulling off a dinner for 20 to 30. In these situations, I also like to set up a sort of buffet-approach to serving everyone there main course...

susan_fox_33805

@Johan, brilliant idea to have asian butane stoves. @Chris you can be sure I'll practice on a smaller crowd - already have dozens of willing volunteers. It will definitely be buffet style as my place is too small for plated affairs much beyond 8. A tip I learned from another skilled hostess is to give guests the option of using lap trays which makes dining less a balancing act and more a pleasure.

Fairbanksans look at you funny if you get too formal ;-)

seijoed

Formal here is not wearing shorts

Mason_Perry_34060

Formal here is not wearing shorts

Same here, I often host dinner parties in board shorts and a tee shirt, my wife is urging me to buy a chefs jacket for when I "guest chef" at other peoples houses.