Miscellania of a busy weekend
Nov. 24th, 2008 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleThe party at the Eagle went flawlessly - I was very, very pleased. It didn't seem like all that much work. Shopping Friday morning, 4 hours of prep in the afternoon, another 3 in the evening, and five more in the morning. I generally schedule in about three hours of slack time for either showering and relaxing, or failing that, at least freaking out in a more leisurely manner. Some of that time got filled, but I still got my shower and some rest before heading out. The only thing that didn't get done, to my regret, was I didn't get the menu printed. People are very curious about exactly what they are eating and it saves time later not having to answer the same question fifty times!
John was there to explain the food and help take in empty appetizer plates. Gypsy helped me with some dishwashing for the plates that had to go back out. He's surprisingly thorough, and actually bleached the entire kitchen before we were out the door. They helped make the event extra easy, but I'm pretty sure I could do it on my own if I had to.
The flaws were relatively minor. As trivial as it seems, I neglected to include contrasting colors in the different kinds of sushi, so that the salmon and cucumber looked exactly the same as the carrot and green onion, potentially confusing any jumpy vegans that might have sued me for accidental ingestion of protein. And my scheme for having nice fresh nori proved unworkable, so I lived with the slightly rubbery but nonetheless acceptable texture that you get after a few hours. I have mixed feelings about sushi anyway; no matter what you do with it, it's so compromised after four hours in a cooler that perhaps it's best to save it for other kinds of events.
We were pretty successful in controlling the tornado-in-a-trailer-park look of a picked over buffet. And my strategies for steering people to particular portion sizes were way more successful than I'd expected. I was worried that this event would be misinterpreted as "dinner" rather than "snacks" by waves of party crashers and that the food would be scarfed up within minutes. But choosing just the right plate and spoon sizes resulted in everybody getting as much as they liked, everything getting eaten at the same rate, and nobody missing out on anything. Better yet, we were left with nothing but a small bag of hummus and half a log of goat cheese at the end. I hate wasting food, so that was a beautiful thing to see.
This event was roughly half price because it was a club thing, but if I can get clients for parties like this at just $10/head it's obvious that this is a good and workable way to make a living. Market rates are often $25/person or more for this sort of thing so there is much opportunity here.
Question: The fingers thing? Some types of chefs touch their food, others wear plastic gloves. Despite my furriness, I'm aiming for an ultra-hygienic image along the lines of a sushi chef, vinegared rag and all. It goes without saying that my coat is spotless and I wash my hands about fifty times an hour. Still, can I have clients see me touching their appetizers? I actually brought plastic gloves but they seemed so wildly unnatural that I didn't even open the box. Particularly when using a knife, they seem nastier than skin itself. The food safety guide says you have to wear them for ready-to-eat food, so I find myself incredibly ambivalent. The best solution might be a no-touch approach where I don't wear gloves but only touch the food with instruments. Now that I think of it, I don't see any reason that can't work.
In other news, we rented a skiploader last week, and through a combination of timing and mechanical failure (requiring a visit from the mechanic), we were able to keep it for six days for the price of two. Our neighbor Ron is a master of this sort of thing, so he helped us groom our driveway area and borrowed it for some work on his own property as well.
Quite a lot of earthmoving got done, with three of our neighbors being really happy with us. A fourth started yelling at Bill about something this morning and claimed we'd cut his phone line, but both his numbers are picking up (answering machine and fax, respectively) so frankly I think he's just trying to fuck with us. Many years ago he said to Bill that "the only thing fags are good for is squeezing money out of" so it seems like he's hostile, crazy, or both. We shall see.
Catering an event seems to put me into high gear, and put me in the mood for more hard work, so I've spent much of the past two days with a fireman's rake doing fine grooming around the house. Our drainage should be much improved, along with the camping areas. The soil here is ridiculously heavy, so it has to get done before the rain saturates it again.
The boys that built the oven came by again and made pizza. Their latest thing is pizza with an egg baked on top. I have to say, it's delicious:
Maybe not as luscious as the chocolate and pear pizza but it was sure a lot more photogenic!
Overall, being away from Perlegen has been extremely liberating. I feel much freer to get useful work done, and I've been doing quite a bit, evidenced by the recent paucity of time spent with LJ. ;-)
John was there to explain the food and help take in empty appetizer plates. Gypsy helped me with some dishwashing for the plates that had to go back out. He's surprisingly thorough, and actually bleached the entire kitchen before we were out the door. They helped make the event extra easy, but I'm pretty sure I could do it on my own if I had to.
The flaws were relatively minor. As trivial as it seems, I neglected to include contrasting colors in the different kinds of sushi, so that the salmon and cucumber looked exactly the same as the carrot and green onion, potentially confusing any jumpy vegans that might have sued me for accidental ingestion of protein. And my scheme for having nice fresh nori proved unworkable, so I lived with the slightly rubbery but nonetheless acceptable texture that you get after a few hours. I have mixed feelings about sushi anyway; no matter what you do with it, it's so compromised after four hours in a cooler that perhaps it's best to save it for other kinds of events.
We were pretty successful in controlling the tornado-in-a-trailer-park look of a picked over buffet. And my strategies for steering people to particular portion sizes were way more successful than I'd expected. I was worried that this event would be misinterpreted as "dinner" rather than "snacks" by waves of party crashers and that the food would be scarfed up within minutes. But choosing just the right plate and spoon sizes resulted in everybody getting as much as they liked, everything getting eaten at the same rate, and nobody missing out on anything. Better yet, we were left with nothing but a small bag of hummus and half a log of goat cheese at the end. I hate wasting food, so that was a beautiful thing to see.
This event was roughly half price because it was a club thing, but if I can get clients for parties like this at just $10/head it's obvious that this is a good and workable way to make a living. Market rates are often $25/person or more for this sort of thing so there is much opportunity here.
Question: The fingers thing? Some types of chefs touch their food, others wear plastic gloves. Despite my furriness, I'm aiming for an ultra-hygienic image along the lines of a sushi chef, vinegared rag and all. It goes without saying that my coat is spotless and I wash my hands about fifty times an hour. Still, can I have clients see me touching their appetizers? I actually brought plastic gloves but they seemed so wildly unnatural that I didn't even open the box. Particularly when using a knife, they seem nastier than skin itself. The food safety guide says you have to wear them for ready-to-eat food, so I find myself incredibly ambivalent. The best solution might be a no-touch approach where I don't wear gloves but only touch the food with instruments. Now that I think of it, I don't see any reason that can't work.
In other news, we rented a skiploader last week, and through a combination of timing and mechanical failure (requiring a visit from the mechanic), we were able to keep it for six days for the price of two. Our neighbor Ron is a master of this sort of thing, so he helped us groom our driveway area and borrowed it for some work on his own property as well.
Quite a lot of earthmoving got done, with three of our neighbors being really happy with us. A fourth started yelling at Bill about something this morning and claimed we'd cut his phone line, but both his numbers are picking up (answering machine and fax, respectively) so frankly I think he's just trying to fuck with us. Many years ago he said to Bill that "the only thing fags are good for is squeezing money out of" so it seems like he's hostile, crazy, or both. We shall see.
Catering an event seems to put me into high gear, and put me in the mood for more hard work, so I've spent much of the past two days with a fireman's rake doing fine grooming around the house. Our drainage should be much improved, along with the camping areas. The soil here is ridiculously heavy, so it has to get done before the rain saturates it again.
The boys that built the oven came by again and made pizza. Their latest thing is pizza with an egg baked on top. I have to say, it's delicious:
Maybe not as luscious as the chocolate and pear pizza but it was sure a lot more photogenic!
Overall, being away from Perlegen has been extremely liberating. I feel much freer to get useful work done, and I've been doing quite a bit, evidenced by the recent paucity of time spent with LJ. ;-)
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-25 09:27 pm (UTC)Isn't there a South Bay restaurant that serves fugu now? I read a review but forget what it said.
I bet post-fugu sex is really hot. Perhaps a little numbing as well. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 12:58 am (UTC)