RoobiFood

The clients have hired me. I know I’ll be cooking for 4 people. The price has been established and the date and time are set. The important business is now done. The fun now begins as I, The Personable Chef set to work on creating a delicious menu.

Hiring a personal chef allows you to really customize your dinner party experience. How much you want to spend is a deciding factor from what will be served to how the service will happen. Hiring a personal chef is a fantastic way to get to be a guest at your own event!

In this case I’ve been asked for an Italian inspired dinner.( My speciality for those of you that are not aware.) A simple casual , some-what predictable menu is what these clients are looking for. I aim to please. My first thoughts are about the local restaurants around these clients and what they might choose there. But then I decide on how I create my own family meals and that feels much more appropriate for these particular clients.

Putting together a menu for me is an exciting challenge. I take all aspects very seriously and leave no stones unturned. I think about the over-all presentation. The textures, flavors, colors and that a variety of delicious fresh ingredients are used. This particular meal will include…an appetizer,salad, main entree and dessert. They requested chicken as the main course, so that narrows the field a bit but the rest is up to me. After a conversation to find out a few more pieces to the puzzle, I learn that the hostess really loves “chicken piccata”. I’m thinking that will be a nice surprise to add to the menu.

Menu as follows: APPETIZER: cannellini bean dip on top of crostini. The beans are mostly pureed to leave a bit of texture. Olive oil, lemon, garlic, scallions, salt and pepper bring it all together. On the platter I add some grape tomatoes sprinkled with course sea salt to add a splash of color and to round out the flavors.

SALAD: Insalate caprese. My absolute favorite and how I measure an Italian restaurants quality. This salad, when done right is transcending in flavors but only if the olive oil has been treated kindly. Such a simple salad with tomatoes,basil and fresh mozzarella. I choose heirloom tomatoes that are yellow and orange . Fresh mozzarella is much easier to find in the market these days. A top quality fruity extra virgin olive oil is a given and some very course sea salt with fresh cracked pepper to add more flavor. To make the recipe my own, I add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. Yummy. Letting the cheese sit in the oil for a few minutes also gives it some wonderful flavor. Tonight I also add some klamata olives to add some new flavor, color and texture. A few non-traditional ingredients that make my caprese salad different and requested often.

MAIN ENTREE: The chicken piccata will be the star. Lemons and the dry white wine give this simple delicious dish some extra sparkle but the capers are what make it sing! I’ve been told by many that my chicken piccata is the best. As I de-glaze the pan with the wine , that fresh lemon- garlic and tangy caper smell tickles my nose. I know they’ll be happy with this main entree choice.  Fresh  herbs are used to play up the flavor of the side dish of baby red potatoes. The herbs not only add color but a beautiful fresh flavor that dances on your tongue. This is  a great accompaniment to the chicken.

DESSERT: The best way to end such a wonderful meal is with some decadent dark chocolate. I serve a creamy ,rich but light dark chocolate mousse (with a hint of orange) that is to die for. When I make this at home everyone fights over who gets to lick the bowl. I top it with fresh raspberries for color and texture but also because they go so very well with the dark chocolate.

The evening is underway and my clients are enjoying a beautiful evening outside. The table is set and course by course I bring them out to be enjoyed.

With the dessert in the fridge and the ooh’s and ah’s of delight outside I clean up the kitchen like I’d never been there and slip out the back door. Another successful dinner party.

What’s next?…..

Well, it’s that “over the meadow and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go” time of year or in my husband’s and my case it’s a “hop a Southwest shuttle, drive the 101, creep along the PCH white cliffs of Big Sur, or meander up the “meadow and woods” of the Interstate 5.  Yeh, the I-5.  A straight line of boring.  An ugly, barren desert landscape that dulls the senses.   But beauty is in the eye of the imagination.  For us, this road is never boring or ugly because we plan our journey as if it were a drive through the hills of Tuscany or the south of France, complete with a picnic in a beautiful vineyard.

For our latest I-5 trip north to the Sacramento/Bay area for a family pre-holiday reunion, I went to my favorite LA gourmet market (partly because Andy Garcia shops there — be still my heart) and bought the makings for our picnic:  Black Forest ham, sliced aged Jarlsberg, heirloom tomatoes, arugula, an Edmund Fallot imported mustard and freshly baked wheat rolls (fiber) for sandwiches, a couple of bottles of Pelegrino and some lovely champagne grapes.  However, not everything in my shopping cart was gourmet.  You see, I have this guilty food pleasure that I indulge only on these interstate treks:  Reduced Fat Cheez-Its.  Why reduced fat?  Less “lard,” more cheese, hence – more cheese flavor.  5 Roobies for sure.

Before we even hit the I-5, I tore open the Cheez-Its box and shoved a handful of these tasty little tidbits into my mouth.   I rationalized this barbaric food behavior as one of these trip’s little perks.   Not until I’ve had 2 – 3 fists full did I even consider sharing these morsels with my husband.  By the time we reached the Grapevine (the mountain ‘pass’ that leads to the San Joaquin Valley) half the box was gone.   By the time we reached the pristine lake reservoir atop the Grapevine the Cheez-Its were gone. 

As we drove out of the mountain terrain and approached the I-5, I once again marveled at the endless miles of moonscape on both sides of the road… distant brownish gray hills and mountains… parched flatland dotted with a few green walnut and citrus groves fed with water stolen from who knows where.  Our mouths, already dry from the salty Cheez-Its, got drier.  We guzzled down half a bottle of the sparkling Pelegrino as we passed the occasional cow or two grazing on a single tuft of straw-like grass. We drove by the few lonely houses miles apart and made up movie scenarios about who lived there and why.  And even after driving this straight “ribbon of highway” over and over again, the sight of sagebrush blowing across the road still sparked my imagination and I pretended to be in an old John Ford western as I pictured Indians on horses atop a distant hill.  Little dust cyclones swirled every so often over the sun-baked land.  But recently, a few more patches of landscape have become greener.  There on the left was a vineyard.  There was another one.  And, yet another as we eased on down the road.   The baby boomers had discovered wine and the valley has jumped on the ‘grapewagon’ turning “The Searchers” into “Sideways.”   I yearned for a chilled bottle of chardonnay.

Just as my stomach started to growl we saw the tall palm trees indicating the exit to the Harris Ranch.  The Ranch is a major watering hole in the midst of this desert valley… the half-way mark between LA/San Francisco-LA/Sacramento. We parked by the Ranch’s inn/restaurant complex and were pleasantly surprised that the “scent” of the cows corralled just a few miles away wasn’t wafting in the air, allowing us to picnic outside the car. 

Inside one of the Ranch’s adobe-esque buildings are three restaurant/bars: the Ranch Kitchen restaurant, The Steakhouse, and the Horseshoe Bar.  Famous for their beef (this is a cattle ranch after all!) we often eat at one of the restaurants on the way home to LA.  If we feel financially flush, we eat at the Steakhouse and I almost always have the filet tenderloin (rare) with a Jack Daniels wild mushroom sauce… a little less flush and we eat in the ‘kitchen’ where I’ll have either the horseradish flank steak salad (rare, of course) or the Ranch Burger, savory “juices” oozing, dressed with the special house sauce and my choice of cheese.  But the trip up is always picnic time.

Also housed in this desert oasis building are a gift shop/butcher/bakery combination and very pretty, clean bathrooms.  We hit the loos then bought some baseball steaks (a rare classic cut that’s mouthwateringly delicious very, very rare) packed in dry ice to bring as a ‘hostess’ gift.  We grabbed a huge fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie from the bakery for later and headed back to the car and our gourmet sandwiches.  We spread a blanket under a nearby tree and remembered the time we sipped wine sitting under a thousand-year old olive tree in Provence. 

Back on the road, we put on the Eagles.  Bugs continued to meet their makers on our windshield as we sang along to “Hotel California.”  When we reached the fork in the road… one tine leading to Sacramento, the other to the Bay area (today it was tine #2)  we shared the cookie as we passed the fields of energy windmills scattered over the rolling, tan landscape that looked like a set from “Thelma & Louise.” 

As we approached our destination, the ground became greener and the homes got closer together.  I thought about the moonscape we just traveled and the picnic we shared under California’s “Tuscan” sun as we exited the freeway and headed to my cousin’s just in time for chilled martinis – shaken, not stirred.

So, for all of you out there who are about to take a holiday road trip, even if it’s a road you’ve often traveled… make it a picnic!  Keep your eyes open.  Let what you see and eat fill your senses… you’ll never know what movie you could be in, what country you might find yourself… what simple joys you could be missing.  Or, rent a book on tape.

“My Dinners With Richard & Other Musings”

www.myspace.com/othermusings