Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party: The Surgeon in the Kitchen

Copyright © 2015 by Adam Frosh. 521004

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014913196

ISBN: Softcover       978-1-4990-8798-7

ISBN: Hardcover       978-1-4990-8799-4

ISBN: Ebook              978-1-4990-8797-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 01/05/2015

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Adam Frosh gives a confidence boost for anyone who wishes to host a dinner party that has a professional and formal feel. His training in surgery provides the attention to detail and planning that makes this book stand out. He focuses our attention not only on the excellence of the quality of the cuisine but how a stunning dinner party can be achieved through careful planning. The reader will see how highly impressive results can be achieved without the need to divert precious time from their guests to prepare food in the kitchen. Adam Frosh not only brings dining excellence to the home but makes the hosting of such an event a great joy.

Dedication

For my lovely family

Acknowledgements

Firstly, a big thank you to my parents who have been a huge inspiration for me to begin this work and an inspiration in my life in general. I wish to give my thanks to Christopher Archambault (of Archambault Culinary Services) for food styling and photography and also to Mark Hallam (of Big Sounds Photography). Thank you to Steve O'Dwyer from Brookfield Farm Butchery, Stevenage, who has been my source of creative butchery by helping me to develop the filet de veau chirurgien, which we believe to be an entirely novel cut. Thank you also to all my friends and family with special thanks to my wife Rachel who has been invaluable as a guinea pig for my various culinary experimentations. I also thank my children with their singular palates. You have all scrutinised my recipes well and have given me important feedback to help make this book a reality.

Contents

From Easy to Awe-Inspiring

Why Offer Elegant Dining?

Achieving the Elegant Effect

The Invitation

Organisation is the Key – Ensure Maximal Time with Your Guests

The Dinner Table

Arranging the Table

The Table Surface

The Centrepiece

The Candlestick/Candelabra

The Place Setting

The Cutlery

Place setting arrangement

The Glassware

• Water

• Red Wine

• White Wine

• Sherry

• Brandy Goblets

Napkins

Plates and Serving Platters

Place Cards

Creating the Look on a Budget

Welcoming Your Guests

Cocktail Hour

Vodka Martini

Hanky-Panky

Sidecar

Canapés and Predinner Snacks

Toasts and Speeches

The Wine

The Menus

Menu 1 – Une Bouchée d’Agneau

Menu 2 – Un Allumeuse de Canard

Menu 3 – Un Goût de Porc

Menu 4 – Un Morceau de Boeuf

Menu 5 – Un Delice de Veau

The Cheeses

Accompaniments for the Cheeses

Appendix

Big-Pot Blanching

Crisping fish fillets

Mayonnaise

Preparing the Filet de Veau Chirurgien Cut

The Quenelle

Stocks

• Stock vegetables

• Lamb stock

• Veal/beef stock

• Chicken stock

• Fish stock

Sauces for Meat Dishes

Sauce vegetables

• Duck jus

• Pork jus

• Lamb jus

• Beef jus

• Sauce espagnole

Addendum

My story

Surgery and Dinner Parties

From Easy to Awe-Inspiring

I have intended this book to meet a range of needs for those who want to create a great dish, for those who want a to be able to produce a delicious two or three course meal and for those who want to wow their guests with a truly awe-inspiring seven-course dining experience complemented by the perfect wine choices.

Creating great results in cookery and entertaining takes time and practise. At a most basic level, the recipes described here can be prepared on an individual basis. As the reader becomes more confident with the recipes, they can prepare two or three courses perhaps for the family or as an informal dinner party for guests. I strongly recommend the reader has practised the recipes well before contemplating entertaining ten people for a seven-course sit-down banquet. Once sufficient confidence has been reached, however, the reader will be able to create dining experience with the finest of dishes and an ambience to match any period drama.

I have constructed the dishes in the menus in a way that creates a good variety of food experiences throughout the meal while avoiding flavour repetition. The menus have been themed so as to build up to the main course as the crowning piece in the meal. There is however, nothing to stop the reader swapping dishes from other menus.

The recipes use ingredients that are readily available in most local shops and supermarkets. Furthermore, all the ingredients are largely available all year round. I have deliberately avoided creating fully seasonal menus for this reason, instead theming the menus according to the main course meat. There are some dishes however, such as the crab and melon gazpacho that will be most appreciated on hot sunny days.

Why Offer Elegant Dining?

Just about everyone has a desire to feel special. We can easily appreciate and recognise when an effort is being made for us whether we are offered a lovingly prepared bowl of soup or the more formal gesture of the organised dinner party. The style of a dinner party could range from the most casual to the more formalised of settings. The modern age has seen a shift generally away from the social rules of the Georgian and Victorian eras with consequent relaxation of etiquettes in manners and dress codes. It is perhaps this drift from convention, which has created a resurgence in interest in texts such as Noblesse Oblige, or Judith Martin’s Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. We marvel at the stunningly produced televised period dramas and movies. How many of us have not imagined ourselves dressed in the period style, sitting at those grand dinner tables adorned with full silver service as we are waited upon by an attentive footman in livery? Of course, such functions were always the preserve of the society elite. However, our modern-day standard of living has improved to such an extent that fine food at least is now open to a much wider spread of people in the many excellent restaurants around the world. Many of these restaurants serve dishes to such a high standard that they would have astounded those very elite classes portrayed in television period dramas.

Elegant dining is without doubt a fun experience. It is both a privilege and a joy to entertain our guests. The trick for the host is to provide the necessary attention to detail to the party and food that convey to the guests a feeling of effortless but special hospitality. This book is not designed to be a reference for generation of everyday meals. It must be remembered that fine dining is for the special occasion. It is essential that while entertaining at their own dinner party, the host feels at ease and fully in control and that they themselves are able to enjoy the great occasion.

Achieving the Elegant Effect

• Dress codes will enhance the experience and feeling of elegance in the dining experience

• Black tie for evening and lounge suits for daytime functions

• Plan the party well in advance

• Good advance preparation will ensure the host spends maximal time with their guests

Achieving the elegant effect will not be easy unless you can pull together the vital components of good food, timing, organisation, style and an overall attention to detail. While individual components may not even be consciously noticed, when brought together, they will not fail to produce an impressive overall effect.

It is important that the guests should know that the party is going to be a rather special one, particularly as this will encourage them to make an effort with the dress code. While I am all for the freedoms and liberal values, which chime with the modern age, there is something very special and exciting when the guests are dressed for the dinner party. This will inevitably add to the overall sense of fun, luxury and elegant atmosphere of the dinner. While we may tend to think of luxury within the dinner setting generally confined to restaurants and special functions, dressing well for any event invariably creates a feeling of finesse and luxury. There is often a certain palpable energy we sense when we attend a wedding, dinner party, or any form of formalised gathering; the atmosphere is magnified by the injection of a certain sense of special occasion.

While white tie for men and bouffant gown for women represent the most formal evening dress code in western fashion, such formalities are now the reserve of formal banquets and state ceremonies¹. Black tie for evening and lounge suits for morning/daytime wear are the slightly less formal counterparts and have the advantage in that many men will own or be able to acquire them fairly easily. The counterparts for women are the evening gown, which can be tea length (just above the ankle) or ballerina length (almost touching the ankle) and the cocktail dress² which are less formal and tend to be at a shorter length between the mid thigh and knee.

While most of us do not live in a stately home, the feeling of elegance at the dinner party can be emulated well by paying certain attentions to detail. First of all, the dinner table should be set correctly and aesthetically with place settings. Ensure there is enough seating available if you have a reception room. The guests should be received warmly by the host who ensures they are relieved of their coats for safekeeping as they are welcomed. Offer the guests a welcome drink and usher them to the reception area. The arrangement of dinner table itself and the welcome drinks are