Tonight was the owner of Giardiniello son or grandson's christening. There were a hundred people there, and probably just as many courses. Maybe not a hundred... but they started at 8 and when I left at 10:30 they still weren't done. I'm not sure how Italian courses go, so I'm just putting them up as they were put out.
First
This is the beginning of the first course. Its seviched salmon on the left, and on the right mixed greens, a toasted bread circle, and seviched anchovies. The anchovies are marinated in wine, vinegar, water, and salt.
This is the finished plate. The salmon got topped with mixed greens and fennel, and the anchovies with a few dried flowers. I'm not sure what the line in the middle is, but both the salad and anchovies got dressed with a lemon vinaigrette.
This also went out with the first course. It is a fried dough with rosemary and parmesan and other things, but I didn't see what all went into it. It was really good.
This was the second course out. From left to right is seared tuna, an eggplant roll-up, and fried anchovy. I've talked about making the eggplant and anchovy things before, and thats them! The eggplant is topped with marinara, parmesan cheese, and a piece of basil. There is a balsamic glaze decorating the bottom.
Third course out. Its just a simple gnocchi with tomato sauce, basil, and mozzarella.
Fourth course. Its half a squash flour on the plate with pasta on top. The pasta is hand made. The sauce is pureed zucchini, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, and zucchini pieces. We make this a lot of lunches and dinners.
The fifth course was a seafood risotto. I didn't get a picture of it though. It had mussels, clams, and squid in it.
I left before this was served so I don't know when it went out. It has a potato bottom and shrimp. I'm not sure what went into the potato, but it was par cooked, and then taken out and the shrimp was added. The shrimp head is empty it was just a decoration. The shrimp tail part had parmesan cheese and olive oil. It looked really delicious.
Well that is what I did today! There was a hundred people at the dinner, so we were constantly plating and getting the dishes ready.
That's the first hundred plates that went out. The guy walking up is my sous chef Jack, and the guy plating is the main chef Giovanni.