In many restaurants, dining has become much more than just having a good meal. It’s now akin to a stage show. As they did in the mid-20th century, chefs leave the kitchen to carve prime rib and light, fluffy meringues on the tableside fire, engaging all your senses in the preparation and plating of your dishes.
This holiday season, invite your private chef or caterer to do the same, finishing stunning dishes in full view of guests and bringing the excitement and extravagance of a white tablecloth experience to your dining room . “People don’t just want to be served,” says Angus McIntosh, a private chef in New York who works with Staffing DM Estate. “They want to be involved in the entire meal, they want to know what’s going on.”
That said, don’t go too far. The key is to choose one or two dishes to get the theater treatment, which makes things less complicated for your kitchen and more special for your guests, according to a New York-based private chef. Maddy DeVita.
“You don’t want your guests to say, ‘Oh, here we go again…,'” she says. “When people are at a dinner party, they’re there to enjoy good food, but they’re also there to chat in company, and you don’t want to grab their attention for too long.”
And for holiday dinners in particular, the table can be cramped with centerpieces, napkins, plates, glasses and an often staggering array of silverware. If you’re planning a few large presentations, you’ll want to invest in a Garrison cart, which can be brought to the table with all the ingredients and accessories needed for your show.
If you’re an experienced cook and want to try your hand but don’t know where to start, try incorporating small acts at the table into the meal, like shaving white truffles over hot bowls of tagliolini or pouring some Bordelaise sauce on plates. of filet mignon per minute. Just be sure to prepare your ingredients in advance, stay organized, and practice several times before the big event so you don’t leave your guests bored or hungry. And starting or ending with a bang is always a good idea. An impressive starter sets the tone for the rest of the meal, and a dessert with fireworks will leave them with a story to tell. “Everyone is excited,” DeVita says. “It’s a nice way to wrap things up.”
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Ceviche
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
Ceviche at the table is a fresh, colorful and creative way to start a meal, according to Andy Suarezprivate chef and culinary instructor in Chicago. Suarez often prepares this dish on yachts, where space is extremely limited. “It has a wow factor,” he says. He brings out most of the ingredients already chopped and then, at the table, cuts slices of sushi-grade salmon as thin as sashimi, ensuring that the marinade penetrates quickly. The technique requires a lot of practice and an extremely sharp Japanese knife so that the fish does not fall apart. (If you want to DIY but don’t have the knife skills, diced cooked shrimp is a good substitute.) He then combines the salmon with diced pineapple, red onion and thinly sliced jalapeños, chopped cilantro, sea salt and lots of freshly squeezed lime juice. before serving with tostadas or lettuce cups.
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Caesar salad
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
A classic Caesar salad is practically synonymous with tableside fare, as countless chefs have been put to the test to concoct this much-loved dressing. And if you’re a home cook looking to get out of the kitchen and onto the table, this is one of the easiest performances to master. Make sure your plates of romaine lettuce and salad stay ice cold until the main event. In a large mixing bowl, using the back of a spoon, mash together the egg yolk, anchovies, roasted garlic and salt to make a paste. Stir in mustard and Worcestershire sauce, black pepper and Parmesan. Slowly add the olive oil and lemon juice. Add the lettuce to the bowl, toss until coated, then divide the portions using tongs. Garnish with crispy croutons and parmesan shavings.
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Ruota Pasta
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
Commonly known as cheese wheel pasta, pasta alla ruota is a mouth-watering, eye-popping way to present a pile of carbs to a crowd. “I haven’t stopped dreaming about it since my last trip to Italy,” says Erin O’Brien, a recipe developer based in Southern California. “I mean, what’s better than tagliatelle thrown at the table in a gigantic wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano?” The recipe itself is pretty simple: Pour hot pasta, butter, and a little pasta water into a hollowed-out wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, then scrape down the sides to coat every inch of cream cheese. If you don’t have an 80-pound wheel of cheese, online food retailers can ship one directly from Italy for a few thousand dollars or so. Before the event, gently dig a “bowl” in the middle of the wheel, light the inside with a torch to get it melted and ready to go, then recruit muscle to load it onto the garrison cart and push it into the dining room. “You’ll get a perfectly glossy sauce and a decadent dish prepared in minutes,” says O’Brien.
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Chimichurri
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
Los Angeles-based private chef Brooke Baevsky (aka Chief Bae) likes to use a mortar and pestle at the table to make herbed chimichurri, which can be used as a room-temperature dip for raw vegetables, as an accompaniment for grilled meats, as a vinaigrette, or as a sauce for pasta. “The balance of temperatures – hot and cold – makes the experience smoother,” she says. “Don’t make a whole menu of things that need to be reheated.” In the mortar, grind together the coarse sea salt and pepper, then the garlic, parsley leaves and oregano leaves. Stir in red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil until smooth. For a fun interactive element, Baevsky suggests letting guests participate in the grinding, rather than just watching the chef do it.
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Martinis
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
A fun way to start the festivities is to roll out a bar cart. Fill it with everything your bartender needs to make martinis to order. In addition to basic bar utensils (an ice bucket, ice scoop, cocktail glasses, jigger, bar spoon, and strainer), be sure to have both a mixing glass (for stirred) and a shaker (for shaken). Add a few bottles of good gin, vodka and dry vermouth, a non-alcoholic gin alternative and plenty of garnish options such as lemon zest, olives, olive juice and cocktail onions. For an after-dinner pick-me-up option, include espresso, coffee liqueur, and simple syrup to make crowd-pleasing espresso martinis.
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Salted Cod
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
To present extravagant dishes like salted cod, McIntoshthe New York private chef, still uses a Garrison cart. Do the prep work either in the kitchen or, to build anticipation, at the table before the first course: On a rimmed baking sheet, stuff a whole fish with aromatics and brush with olive oil. Put moist kosher salt under, around and on the fish and roast until done. The salt hardens into a thick shell, locking in flavors and creating a spectacular presentation. “You can take it out, scroll it, and then remove the salt in one big block,” he says. Fillet the meat and serve on a plate with accessories such as crushed and roasted potatoes, aioli, chimichurri or salsa verde.
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Cherry Jubilee
Image credit: Lauren Tamaki
To finish the meal, bring the fire. Cherry Jubilee, a delicate flambé dessert, can be primarily assembled in the kitchen then transported to the table for a live fire demonstration, or the sauce can be cooked with a portable burner in front of your guests, which is how restaurants like Brennanin New Orleans, made him famous decades ago. Chef McIntosh uses a heavy-bottomed sauté pan to heat pitted cherries, sugar and lemon juice, then adds a little rum or Kirschwasser cherry brandy. He lights the alcohol using a long lighter or match. “Be careful!” he warns. “The flames will burst, creating a spectacular spectacle.” You don’t want to light the tablecloth or napkins on fire, so take a step back (and have a fire extinguisher handy, just in case). Once the alcohol has burned off and the flames have gone out, pour the cherry sauce over slices of lemon-poppy seed pound cake and vanilla ice cream. “A meal can be long and tedious, but it will revitalize you,” he says.
