Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Maintaining the monthly blog post

The end of May already, but with a new computer, after weeks of no computer at all, it also brings the promise of regular blogging again - I have months of catching up to do. My friend Marion and I have been doing some catering over the past few months. Last Tuesday we headed off to a saltworks company 45 minutes away from where we live, to provide a lunch for 20 visitors that the company were hosting, for a product release.
We were in the kitchen/staff lunchroom unpacking and starting to prepare food when the Site Manager came in and introduced himself, and then asked if we knew what was happening during the day. He then went on to say that the visitors were actually from Sydney and that they were all food editors! Great...... It still didn't occur to us how important these food editors were until the door opened and in walked Lyndey Milan - food editor of The Women's Weekly - and appears on TV (currently has a new foodie travelog type of show on SBS Thursday nights).......deep breaths were taken by us.
We recognised others too - Jennene Plummer from Woman's Day, Doris Papps(?) from New Idea, Michelle Southan and Betty Chung from Good Taste, ....from Food Ideas, and more. The group were heading up to the Barossa Valley for the night and had their own chef with them. It was supposed to have been Justin North (who you may have seen on Masterchef and other TV shows) but at the last minute he couldn't make it so his head chef was sent on his behalf.
The Public Relations lady who had organised the group, popped out to see us a few times and was sampling various things before we even got to take them out to the dining area. When she saw the macarons she told us that Adriano Zumbo is one of her clients and she didn't think she would ever want to eat another macaron again, after sampling some of his wasabi and other flavoured macarons. She told us that ours were really good!
We had a moment of panic, wondering if what we had prepared was up to their standard and then decided that it was, and we couldn't have done anything else at that time anyway.
The menu we prepared? Is as follows - make sure you don't read it on an empty stomach!
blinis with smoked salmon and creme fraiche
arancini with mushroms and mozarella cheese filling
bruschetta with tomato and roast capsicum
caramelised mushroom tart with sour cream and chives
............................................
prawn, atlantic salmon and scallop skewers
balsamic glazed fillet with caramelised apple skewers
middle eastern lamb pies with minted cream cheese and pinenuts
spinach and feta rolls
chicken and haloumi skewers
korma rump steak pies
autumn vegetable tart wedges
...........................................
meringue nests with poached mixed berries
lemon brulee tarts
pink macarons with white chocolate and raspberry ganache
green macarons with salted caramel filling
macadamia tarts
black forest petit fours
dark chocolate orange tarts with chocolate orange pastry
..........................................
cheese platter with 3 cheeses and homemade (& home grown) quince paste
Not a lot of photos, I know, it was only as we were putting the sweets onto the table (and the group were out of the room on a short tour) that we thought to take a few.
What a day - not the kind of day, you expect in a small country area! The feedback was great and we were called into the dining area to be thanked by the food editors.....hope they remember where we live, if they ever need us!!!!!!!!!!!

5 comments:

Melissa said...

Great to see you back.
WOW how fabulous is all I can say and when is your next luncheon date??
Well done,
now I'm starving!!!

Just Me and My Shadow said...

Lovely to see you visit my blog Christina. Wow!! You and Marion are certainly a talented pair. Probably see you on Master Chef Soon!!That food looks amazing.
Chrissie

Pam said...

Oh my Christina! I hadn't realised you and Marion were so creative and such dab hands in the cooking area!!!!! I would say you did yourselves proud indeed! The food looks fabulous. Well done both of you. Must have been a bit of a shock when you saw who would be eating your goodies?!
Glad to see you're back onboard. x

seabreezequilts said...

Wow Christina, the food looked divine and I am sure it tasted wonderful. Glad you are back on board its lovely to catch up with what you are up to.

Anonymous said...

do I see macaroons??

Did you make them?

I am in awe...