The wedding was yesterday. It was just lovely. Ceremony in the garden at the Seibels House.
Beautiful bride with a cool feather headpiece. Handsome groom who is wicked on the dance floor. Friends, wine, music...and the FOOD!
The caterer was LOOSH Culinaire. I had not encountered this company before and let me tell you, I am one happy little wanna-be now that I've had the pleasure. As an additional bonus, our old friend Eli was working the party. We met Eli a hundred years ago when she worked for Motor Supply. I've always admired (and been jealous) of Eli because she attends the Food & Wine festival every year. Yeah, I've been a whopping ZERO times. So, needless to say, she's a wine expert which led her to the job of Wine Consultant at Green's for several years. Sadly, Eli left Green's to attend nursing school. So, she isn't there to guide Columbia on wine selections, but one day she might save our lives! Anyway, having her there and being able to catch up was terrific.
During the cocktail hour, the passed hors d'oeuvres were simply fantastic. Spoonfuls of ratatouille, tempura freshwater prawns on skewers and small ramekins filled with truffled macaroni and cheese. Yes, you heard me right. My favorite was the prawns. The tempura was sheer perfection: light, crisp, even the color was right on. They were served with a soy dipping sauce that was the ideal complement. But man, that mac & cheese was pretty darn amazing too.
Inside the house the food fiesta continued. Two chefs were preparing seared scallops with a citrus beurre blanc. I wish I'd had my wits about me to snap some pix of all this great food, but I was too busy eating. These were just beautiful and I'm not a huge scallop fan. I'd order these babies all day long. Next, I discovered the roasted beef (I can't remember if it was prime rib or tenderloin) with horseradish creme fraiche. It seems impossible for meat to melt, but it does. This was outstanding: perfect color, amazingly tender and deep flavor. Roasted asparagus was next on my plate. It was sprinkled with a dark purple powder, which Eli explained to me later, was organic beets that they had purchased, dehydrated and then ground into a "dust." If you don't know, the big mamma jamma chefs are all about dusts and powders there days. What this did was impart a deep, earthy element to the asparagus. Winner.
The crab and corn dip was like having chowder on toast points! I'd love this recipe. Great party food. Next, I came across the portabello sliders. Not being a mushroomer, I passed on these but I think that was a cool item to serve not only for the variety it added to the menu, but to offer vegetarians or veg-heavy eaters an alternative. I moved on to the other room across the foyer. This entire table was devoted to cheese. I had one twinge of panic, as I thought "Wow, I'm dead. I'm in Heaven." As I snapped out of it, I zeroed in on the display. For those of you who don't know, I studied French all through high school and college and spent a semester en France. I saw cheeses on this table that I had never heard of and if you've spent any time in France, you've been around cheese! These were fabulous, beautiful works of art! Creamy, rich, crumbly, firm, soft. This was by far the most extensive and elaborate cheese assortment that I've ever had the pleasure to sample.
Later in the evening, Eli and I were chatting and the chef/owner of LOOSH walked up. She introduced me and Neil to Crawford Pressley. In that introduction, she included the fact that he trained at the Le Cordon Bleu in London. Rock on! This guy is a REAL chef. No wonder. Now all those foreign cheeses were making sense. The perfect seafood dishes, the perfect beef. Impressive. And, he's a really nice guy. He markets his business by word-of-mouth and specializes in high-end style catering. That was certainly evident by what we saw last night.
I've thought about this food all day. If I were on Death Row, I'd order Crawford's prawns and scallops for my last meal. Maybe I'll figure out a way to learn who has hired him to cater their events and I'll become a professional culinary stalker. Or maybe I should just ask him for a job.
BTW: I asked Neil what he thought was the best dish last night and his response was "you." Awwwww. Well played dear husband, well played.
Beautiful bride with a cool feather headpiece. Handsome groom who is wicked on the dance floor. Friends, wine, music...and the FOOD!
The caterer was LOOSH Culinaire. I had not encountered this company before and let me tell you, I am one happy little wanna-be now that I've had the pleasure. As an additional bonus, our old friend Eli was working the party. We met Eli a hundred years ago when she worked for Motor Supply. I've always admired (and been jealous) of Eli because she attends the Food & Wine festival every year. Yeah, I've been a whopping ZERO times. So, needless to say, she's a wine expert which led her to the job of Wine Consultant at Green's for several years. Sadly, Eli left Green's to attend nursing school. So, she isn't there to guide Columbia on wine selections, but one day she might save our lives! Anyway, having her there and being able to catch up was terrific.
During the cocktail hour, the passed hors d'oeuvres were simply fantastic. Spoonfuls of ratatouille, tempura freshwater prawns on skewers and small ramekins filled with truffled macaroni and cheese. Yes, you heard me right. My favorite was the prawns. The tempura was sheer perfection: light, crisp, even the color was right on. They were served with a soy dipping sauce that was the ideal complement. But man, that mac & cheese was pretty darn amazing too.
Inside the house the food fiesta continued. Two chefs were preparing seared scallops with a citrus beurre blanc. I wish I'd had my wits about me to snap some pix of all this great food, but I was too busy eating. These were just beautiful and I'm not a huge scallop fan. I'd order these babies all day long. Next, I discovered the roasted beef (I can't remember if it was prime rib or tenderloin) with horseradish creme fraiche. It seems impossible for meat to melt, but it does. This was outstanding: perfect color, amazingly tender and deep flavor. Roasted asparagus was next on my plate. It was sprinkled with a dark purple powder, which Eli explained to me later, was organic beets that they had purchased, dehydrated and then ground into a "dust." If you don't know, the big mamma jamma chefs are all about dusts and powders there days. What this did was impart a deep, earthy element to the asparagus. Winner.
The crab and corn dip was like having chowder on toast points! I'd love this recipe. Great party food. Next, I came across the portabello sliders. Not being a mushroomer, I passed on these but I think that was a cool item to serve not only for the variety it added to the menu, but to offer vegetarians or veg-heavy eaters an alternative. I moved on to the other room across the foyer. This entire table was devoted to cheese. I had one twinge of panic, as I thought "Wow, I'm dead. I'm in Heaven." As I snapped out of it, I zeroed in on the display. For those of you who don't know, I studied French all through high school and college and spent a semester en France. I saw cheeses on this table that I had never heard of and if you've spent any time in France, you've been around cheese! These were fabulous, beautiful works of art! Creamy, rich, crumbly, firm, soft. This was by far the most extensive and elaborate cheese assortment that I've ever had the pleasure to sample.
Later in the evening, Eli and I were chatting and the chef/owner of LOOSH walked up. She introduced me and Neil to Crawford Pressley. In that introduction, she included the fact that he trained at the Le Cordon Bleu in London. Rock on! This guy is a REAL chef. No wonder. Now all those foreign cheeses were making sense. The perfect seafood dishes, the perfect beef. Impressive. And, he's a really nice guy. He markets his business by word-of-mouth and specializes in high-end style catering. That was certainly evident by what we saw last night.
I've thought about this food all day. If I were on Death Row, I'd order Crawford's prawns and scallops for my last meal. Maybe I'll figure out a way to learn who has hired him to cater their events and I'll become a professional culinary stalker. Or maybe I should just ask him for a job.
BTW: I asked Neil what he thought was the best dish last night and his response was "you." Awwwww. Well played dear husband, well played.
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