Mission Accomplished. First dinner party: Success!

Now, I am ready.  I had a feeling that I might be able to pull it off, but with such great friends who are willing to pitch in, it went more smoothly than anticipated.  Thank you to Caro, Lauren, Juice and Jane!

I have a notebook which has become the “holy grail” of this dinner party project.  In it are potential recipes which morphed over the last two weeks until the final menu was decided on.  There are scribbles of new ideas, and scratches over old ones and a modern art drawing of what the plating could look like. I even have dates written next to each ingredient reminding me how early I can begin prep it to ensure it’s still fresh and delicious for the service.  Yes, I am obsessed.

It was a lot of work running around Paris to find the perfect ingredients.  There was one afternoon in a Japanese supermarket, where I had to buy the heaviest items.  I walked 5 blocks from the Metro station with a giant shopping bag in hand and collected large bags of rice, salt, and cornstarch and large bottles of mirin, sake, soy sauce and rice vinegar.  With that and a few other essentials, I thought the bag might break as I hoisted it on my shoulder, staggered back to the Metro, squeezed myself on the train during rush hour, and sweated up 4 flights of stairs to my apartment.  I may have passed out when I got home.

Then, after that, even more work!  My goal was to have all the ingredients prepped at my house before heading over to Caro’s, then give myself a couple hours to just assemble dishes and do the actual cooking so plates are hot when the guests arrive.  I started the night before, cutting cucumbers into strips, draining tofu, blanching vegetables, mixing sardines with shallots and parsley for the paté, grating a lot of ginger, and mincing an entire elephant garlic.  I worked past midnight with sore hands and blurred vision because I didn’t want to run out of time.

The day of the party, I was exhausted, which added to my nerves a bit.  With Caro’s guests coming over at 8:30p, will I have the energy to last throughout the party? Seemed like a long day.  I started working at 1:00p, cooking rice, eel, salmon.  Then, at 3:00p, my wonderful friend, Lauren, came to give me a huge helping hand.  Lauren cut chicken, tuna, and avocado while I rolled out sushi and by 6:00p, we packed up my rolling shopping bag full of food, and pulled it all the way to Caro’s apartment.

Once I got to Caro’s, I started to feel relieved.  I saw the dishes coming together and surprisingly, even had some time to relax and have a beer.  Another friend, Jane, came to support me and she eagerly jumped right in assembling the tofu dish.  Thank you to both of you.  Without your help, I may not have finished in time, or I may have poisoned myself with too many Red Bulls while holding a knife with shaking hands.  Would not have been a good situation.

The guests began to arrive and the plates looked good!  And as they started eating, I was pretty confident that they tasted good as well.  The following slideshow are pictures of the food that were taken at the party, courtesy of Juice.  I’ve included comments I received on each dish.

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I learned a lot from this experience and have made a few notes in my notebook to tweak the menu a bit, but all-in-all, my first catering event was a success.  The party has already been written about at http://frenchfryinburgerland.com/2011/09/02/30-thats-it/. If you’re curious to know what the menu has turned into, you’ll just have to taste it for yourself at the next dinner party.  “wink, wink”

Lauren, Masami and Jane

Happy Birthday, Caro!