Are You Afraid To Invite A Chef To Dinner?

One of the challenges of a supper club is when one of the guests is a chef or is the one that wrote the menu. This can be intimidating to some hosts. Consequently, quite often chefs don’t get asked to dinner.

I am not a chef. I have been lucky to work with great chefs so I know what I am not. I have been cooking for years and have written this book so people think I know what I am doing. I also know that I intimidate some people when it comes to food. I will even admit that I can be an asshole, hopefully a good asshole. I certainly don’t want to make people nervous.

A good example of this involves Lucien Vendome. He is a world-renowned chef, a brilliant guy and my good friend. We used to work together at Kraft and Susan and I would invite him over for dinner. At first, I insisted that he not cook at my house. My thought was he was my guest and I didn’t want him to cook. This didn’t work. Lucien was more comfortable cooking. Cooking together worked really well.

Lucien was a central to the original “Impromptu Friday Nights” crew. We got into the routine of him stopping by my office around 3 pm on a Friday afternoon. He would ask: “Are you and Susan in town this weekend?” To which I would respond: “The usual suspects?” After getting clearance from the war department (my wife Susan), Susan would call four other wives to invite them. Then Lucien and I would start planning. There were three amazing things that would happen:

Susan would get the house ready. The fact that she would agree to hosting a dinner party on such short notice was amazing and a credit to her flexibility.
Nine out ten times the four couples that got invited at four would show up at seven. These guys all had big corporate jobs that had them traveling the world. Somehow it was serendipity. Whenever we would host an “Impromptu Friday Nights”, everyone would show up.
Lucien and I would pull together an amazing meal in very short order. We would make things like chicken Milanese that could be made “a la minute” or very quickly.
Check out the recipe:

While inviting chefs and authors can be intimidating it can also be a lot of fun and chances are you, like me will learn something.

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs due out from Morgan James Publishing on January 30, 2018.

What It Takes To Be The “Wine Guy”.

Every supper club will benefit from having a “wine guy” or fifteen wine guys. This would be guy that has a great selection of wines in his cellar or aspires to have them. A guy that really knows his wines and what pares with what. And, most importantly a guy that loves to share.

Scott Flora is my all time leading wine guy. He doesn’t work for a wine company he just buys a lot. A classic Scott story involved a kickoff party that we had for my daughter’s wedding. We had 75 people at our house in Westhampton and I had bought a variety of 1.5 liter bottles of wine. Scotty asked if I minded if he brought some wine to the party. I told him he had been bringing wine to my parties for years why change now thinking he would bring a bottle or two. During the party I was pretty busy socializing and cooking. I did notice that Scotts table was popular. The next day I realized I still had cases of wine left. Scott’s cases trumped my cases.

Scott will ask what is for dinner and bring a few bottles that speak to the meal. His education has come a long way from Elgin Illinois. Corporate America has done an excellent job of training Scott and others. Working in the medical industry he has worked with doctors around the world. Through his work and travels he has learned a lot about wine and our supper club has benefited from that education.

We once had a really earthy Gorgonzola. Scott tasted the cheese and darted off to his wine collection. He then pared it with this wine that had an amazing terroir. (Terroir is how a particular region’s climate, soils and aspect (terrain) affect the taste of wine.) The combination of the wine and cheese was amazing.

Speaking of terroir, I used to work in the chocolate business. I was at a trade show and Ben of Ben and Jerry’s stopped by our booth. We asked him if he would be interested in buying our chocolate as an ingredient. He said he wasn’t because he didn’t like the “barnyard note” in our chocolate. Translated, he was telling us it tasted like shit, but it had a great terroir.

In the end, all it really takes to be the “wine Guy” at a supper club is to be the guy that brings the wine.

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs due out from Morgan James Publishing on January 30, 2018.

Why I Don’t Drink Tequila

My roommate from college Ron Iles used to say “I don’t drink tequila because every time I do I wake up …in Mexico”. While I might not be a big fan of Tequila, Mexican inspired dishes are great for supper clubs.

Growing up in New York in the 1960’s, Mexican was not part of our diet. I can remember the first time I went to a Mexican restaurant. My wife Susan took me to Nito’s in Greenwich Village. I loved it and Nito’s was the gold standard we compared every Mexican restaurant we went to for years.

Having traveled to Mexico and having worked with some really good Mexican chefs I now know that the standard fare of rice, refried beans and tacos is just the tip of the culinary iceberg when it comes to Mexican cuisine. The fresh seafood and great sauces of real Mexican food are fantastic. I even have a “Gringo Mexican” recipe in my book.

Check out the recipe for Shrimp and Avocado Quesadilla;

While I am not a huge fan of Tequila, I do love Mexican beer. This brings me back to another great Ron Iles line. After college Ron spent six months living in Mexico. When he got back I asked him how he got by not speaking the language. He said: “it was easy, all you have to know is: Una cerveza por favor. Then after that all you need is: una mas”. ( “One beer please” and “One more”). Mexican beers are great especially with a squeeze of fresh lime.

Fresh fish is central to quite a bit of Mexican cuisine. The best sushi I have ever had was in Cabo. My friends in Japan have treated me to some great raw fish, but the freshness of the fish and delicacy of the sauces we had in Cabo were memorable, that and the sparkle in my grandson’s eyes as he flirted with the waitress.

Make sure you include Mexican cuisine when thinking abut supper club menus.

One of the challenges of a supper club is when one of the guests is a chef or is the one that wrote the menu. This can be intimidating to some hosts. Consequently, quite often chefs don’t get asked to dinner.

Susan would get the house ready. The fact that she would agree to hosting a dinner party on such short notice was amazing and a credit to her flexibility.

Nine out ten times the four couples that got invited at four would show up at seven. These guys all had big corporate jobs that had them traveling the world. Somehow it was serendipity. Whenever we would host an “Impromptu Friday Nights”, everyone would show up.

Lucien and I would pull together an amazing meal in very short order. We would make things like chicken Milanese that could be made “a la minute” or very quickly.

Check out the recipe:

While inviting chefs and authors can be intimidating it can also be a lot of fun and chances are you, like me will learn something.

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs due out from Morgan James Publishing on January 30, 2018.