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Hey guys gala dinner menu help.

1K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  cerise 
#1 · (Edited)
Long story short, a friend sent me the menu for a gala dinner that is happening in couple of months in his hotel. Just wanted to get some feedback.

Entrée

A pan-seared sea diver scallop

on a polenta cake and lobster creme.

With blackberries, bresaola powder,

glazed beetroots and crispy chives.

Pottage

Warm truffle scented vichyssoise

king tiger prawn filled tortelloni,

charred shallot oil

and enoki mushrooms.

Main

Norwegian Salmon "papillote",

scented with thai ****** lime leaves.

On a artichoke pure and chimichurri, thai lemon crème.

Baby carrot, flat beans and french beans

Dessert

Made by another guy no help needed here



Vegetarian Option



Entrée

Cold Spaghetto alla Chitarra Salad

Puttanesca sauce

Béarnaise

(not really sure what this is. Anyone?)



Pottage

Warm truffle scented vichyssoise,

flower petal and pecorino di grota filled tortello,

charred shallot oil

and enoki mushrooms.



Main

Ponzu scented fagotti filled with truffles

saffron pickled shallots and charred lemon crème.

Rip it apart until it shines, if you please. Ill pick up the remains and let him know.

Cheers.
 
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#2 ·
it looks tight , except for the blackberries coupled with scallop..

Those are some great ingredients, shame to over power them with blackberries. Just a LITTLE bit of fine chev'd carrot could be nice in there as well, adds some colour, matches with the beetroots. Blackberries and beetroots could easily over power the sensitive scallop... The polenta cake, not bad, how about a slow cooked cauliflower Florette, its pretty flavor neutral and would match well with the beets and be less prep..

BUT , it could work. Personally I like concept dishes and blackberries (traditionally humble) paired with DIVED scallops, could be amazing or the scallop will get lost. i would use a little mint as the garnish for that dish , but on the whole.. looks pretty good !
 
#4 ·
Just a glance, I'm assuming the bearnaise dropped down from the salmon.

Papillote, serving in the pap? if so the ****** kinda bothers me. If just scent with a leaf, what do the guest do with it? If you stem, rib and chiffonade it can take over.

The chitarra has to be fresh. for this menu i would use fresh anchovies and the green olives. gaeta.

I'm old and I like the menu if that tells you something. It's bordering a cruise menu. Not current. Just me though/img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif
 
#5 ·
The Papillote is a bit out of place.  It is awkward to eat and you have the packet on the plate with the rest of the stuff.. just nope.  Don't do it.

I don't like the idea of taking a beautiful prawn and mincing it and hiding it in tortellini.

In general it feels a bit heavy, a bit old school, but that's alright.  A lot of cream, butter, and truffle.
 
#7 ·
Salmon, Thai sauces, and succotash on the same place? That's a lot going on. And the same seems to be the case with the other dishes. Beet, lobster cream, bressola powder, and polenta are all super heavy and I dont think the blackberry will be enough to calm it down.
 
#8 ·
Blackberries and scallop sounds...not good. 

Technically "vichyssoise" isn't served warm, but I digress. 

The papillote as a cooking technique is fine, the fish doesn't necessarily have to be served in the papillote. In fact, given that it is in quotes and not stated "en papillote" it might be something a little different. I don't know about artichokes and thai flavors, as well as chimichirri. Seems mashed up, and not in a good way. I would pick one direction and stick with that. Argentinian/S. American flavors are lovely, as are Thai flavors. Dunno about mixing the two. Artichokes just seem weird in that dish to me. 

The Chitarra is a type of pasta cutter that resembles the strings on a guitar ("chitarra"). So this sounds like a cold pasta salad. I don't think I would want to eat a putanessca sauce cold, but I suppose some sort of chopped tomato/anchovy/caper/olive sauce isn't out of the realm of possibility for a pasta salad. Just be careful if using anchovies, many vegetarians don't eat them. I'm going to assume that the bernaise is a mistake...cause otherwise, WTF?

Again, mixing the flavors. Italian/Provencial/Asian flavors in the Veggie Main? There also seems to be 3(!) pasta courses on the Veggie side, assuming that Fagotti is a type of pasta. You have cold pasta salad, tortello with soup, and filled pasta for main? Ponzu and saffron and truffles? Truffles would be wasted with those strong flavors. If you are using truffles, don't overwhelm them with other stuff. Also, truffles appears in the previous course. So much truffle, so much pasta. 

I dunno, looks sloppy to me. Too confusing, too much stuff. I feel bad cause your friend probably worked hard on it, so good luck. 
 
#10 ·
Ive never been there but how about some local flavor? Something fresh, unadulterated and perfect from there? I eat Norweigen Salmon every week, but I live right next to the ocean where they catch it. When Im in Italy I dont. The menu looks like almost every thing comes from thousands of miles away.

Ive been to a "few" Gala dinners, they are usually for guest from other places and have always featured the regional cusine.

If it were me, I'd sit down with local trained cooks and a blank sheet of paper.
 
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