What is your opinion?

[Mel]

Hello,

I'm working on menu selections for a served luncheon
for 300 this April. The client is open to a preset or served
appetizer but requests a served hot meal. The premise of the event
is honering a person who donated funds towards a new
building that has recently opened.
I've been toying with the idea of offering a spinach
artichoke pate with a cubed artisan cheese and petit apple
and pear. I can envision the plate and my own liking, but
wonder if pate is a safe choice for this number,even though
it's a vegetarian option.
A safer choice may be an individual plate of thin white
and green asparagus paired with red endive, hard boiled
eggs with crumbled stilton or goat cheese creme friache as
a garnish over the egg.
I also like the idea of serving an individual 3oz tart,
like asparagus and guyere or wild mushroom and leek. I could
go with a prepared shell, cook off an hour before service and
serve warm/room temp. What are your thoughts/opinion on
this?
Beef tenderloin is the client's choice of protein for the
served meal. Works for me, just looking at interesting
starches and veg to pair with it for variety and plate
presentation.
The day is catching up with me as I write this so will
end here.
Thanks in advance for your inputs, always appreciated.
mj

[momoreg]

I would go with the second app., not because it's 'safer', as you put it, but because it offers the vibrant colors of the veg,with the texture that is lacking in the pate, and lightness that is necessary for a luncheon that includes a beef entree.

Maybe you could use the tart on the entree plate. It would be an attractive departure from mashed potatoes and mixed veg!!

[chefnrnnr]

I would go w/ the tart is seems more like a app. and a little more elegant
For the starch I have had alot of sucess w/israli cous cous and a celeriac purree

[Mel]

Thank you for your responses, very much appreciated. I've
got some time to play with the menus and regret posting
my request for suggestions when tired, I enjoy menu
development and certainly didn't reflect in creativity in
my post!
I'm thinking of offering a spinach timbale with the beef and accent it with some fire-roasted red and yellow peppers
that I can bring in from Sid Wainer Produce.
Are you familiar with Sid Wainer and Son Produce and
Specialty Foods? Great products and service, wish I could
use them all the time. Recently toured their facility in New Bedford,
Mass and as expected, very impressed by their staff, facility
and varieties of produce and extensive specialty items.
I saw some goat cheese butter that I would love to use
down the road as a finishing touch over meat. Loved the
8-ball squash, seeing baby chard, farmer market choice on
baby lettuce, 4 varieties to a case all petit heads.
The list goes on, it just amazes me how far we've come in
the abilility to access so many different produce throughout
the year. The visit fell at a good time to rejuvenate some
creative thinking and served to remind me not to lose touch
with the "fun" part of my work which got me here in the first
place.
Thanks again for your opinions.
Mel

[Suzanne]

OH! Sid Wainer has fabulous stuff. I think KateW has worked there at some point.

[momoreg]

My husband and I were just talking about SW today, and drooling over some of their products. Especially those marinated cippolini onions!!

[KateW]

I haven't worked there, but I did apply and never heard back. Also I put them down as one of my choices for coop at JWU but got placed at a racing track instead.
I love what they have to offer, though. They provide most if not all of our specialty food and produce at JWU.

[alexr]

I call Sid Wainer every few months trying to get them to deliver to my area! No luck yet, they have such great stuff....

[Mel]

AlexR,
Where do you work out of? mel

[alexr]

Croton Falls, NY