How To Avoid “One Course Too Many”

One of the dilemmas in writing a menu for a Supper Club is matching the culinary standards of the dinners with the cooking skills of the of the cooks. In today’s worlds of fine dining and the food network the average Supper Clubber has pretty high standards. Quite often, the skills of the cooks don’t match up.

My Culinary guru is Lucien Vendome. He went to Culinary school in Paris. Lucien worked in some of the finest restaurants in the US. He has led Culinary innovation teams for both Nestle and Kraft. Simple put, he is a culinary great, and my good friend. I love the guy, but he is always trying to outdo himself.

Lucien’s assistant for many years was Amanda Hassner who is a phenomenal chef in her own right. She once told me that Lucien’s biography (which she would have to write) would be titled “One Course Too Many”. He never does anything simple. He always does fantastic.

When I write a menu I usually exhibit my inner Lucien. I once wrote a “Piatinni” (small plates) or Tasting Menu that involved 17 pages of instruction. In my mind it was simple. For the other Supper Clubbers it was more challenge than they signed up for. One poor lady was simply overwhelmed. I helped her out by breaking it down, doing some prep work myself and delegating many of the items to other Supper Clubbers.

There are things that are simple to me like chopping onions that were a challenge to my friend. She told me she spent close to an hour chopping onion and garlic. I asked if she owned a food processor? What she did in an hour I would do in five minutes.

Since my 17 page “War and Peace” menu I always try to balance my culinary challenge with the cooking skills. Simple menus can be written that meet the culinary standards of most Supper Clubbers. Some Supper Club cooks are very good and you can get more adventurous. In the long run…simple is better.

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.

How To Grill The Perfect Steak

A question I get asked all the time is: Can you teach my husband to grill a steak? He over-cook’s everything.
There are several things that I do when I grill a steak:

• Let the steak slack out to room temperature for 45 minutes
• Pre-heat the grill on high for 15 minutes
• Brush on a light coating of olive all and season liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Place the steak on the grill and cook side one until about 60% done. I don’t believe in repeatedly flipping the steak. It is good to get a little char on side one. Side two should be less charred.

In my method there are 3 ways to check for done-ness

1. Touch it. Every steak you have ever had at a restaurant has been touched. At KFI we trained salespeople to check for doneness. We had them touch a raw steak. It was very soft. We had them touch an overcooked steak. It was very hard. We had them touch a medium steak and it was in between hard and soft. Touch takes practice.
2. Use an instant read thermometer. They work really well. I cook it to 115 degrees. Pull it off the grill and let it sit. It will continue to cook up to 125 degrees which is the perfect medium rare
3. Cut a little slice. This is a taboo in most cookbooks as “they” say you are letting out the juices. I once saw one of the best chefs I have ever worked with cut a little slice. There is nothing like seeing the doneness to be sure.

The goal is medium rare. I have surveyed chefs that work in high-end restaurants and they say 85% of customers want their steak medium rare.

I have one friend that asks the waiter for his steaks “Medium rare plus”. I pity the poor server that goes back to tell the chef that some pain in the ass customer wants his steak medium rare plus. If the server is lucky the chef will laugh. A few chefs I know would explode.

The first question I get asked is how long should I cook the steak. My answer is that it depends on several factors:

• How hot is the grill. All grills vary
• How often you open the grill
• How often you flip the steak (Only once recommended)
• How thick is your steak

Time and temperature can be misleading! Stick to the 3 doneness measures above and with a little practice you will get really good.
With the goal of medium rare, I cook to rare (warm red center) pull it off the grill, brush it with a compound butter (butter, garlic, shallot, herbs, salt and pepper) and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then slice and serve.

So what about steak for people that like their steak well-done? This is bad, but I avoid friends that like well-done steaks. I love the line in Anthony Bourdain’s book where he claims that most chefs save the worst steak for dinners that ask for well done. If they want well done they don’t have a clue. Truth is that there will always be end pieces of meat for the well-done guys.

How To Come Up With The Perfect People To Be In A Supper Club

Supper Clubs have no age limits. The general practice is for a Supper Club to be generational. Baby boomers stick with baby boomers and millenials stick with millenials. Personally I prefer to get a mix of generations.

Not being tied to one generation opens up the possibilities. This reminds me of a multi generational story. More than a few years ago, we were having dinner with our friends Terry and Jeff back in Greenwich Connecticut. While were waiting to get seated I ran into a childhood friend, Tommy Palumbo at the bar. It was great to see him. After a briefly catching up I rejoined my wife and friends at our dinner table. When I sat down Jeff asked me: Why that I was 45 and looked 55 and Tommy who was 45 looked 35? To which I responded: It could be the 25 year old woman he was with that isn’t his first wife”. The scar from where Susan kicked me has just about healed.

For the record, Tommy had also dyed his hair. Having had hair that is completely white since I was 30 probably leaves me sensitive and exposed to older than I look comments. Then again I can be glad that I have hair. Unlike my father who was bald and used to say: “God only made a few perfect heads, the rest he put hair on”.

We are lucky to live in a neighborhood that a lot of millenials are moving into. We have joined a wine club where the average age is closer to 35 than our age of 60. It is great. The millenials are a lot of fun and the dynamic for a Supper Club works very well.