Category Archives: Blog

The Secret Sauce

This is a do-over from a blog from February 2020. Boy did our world change over the following year. As the world starts to get vaccinated let’s hope it isn’t too long before we can get the Secret Sauce working again.

For me, the Secret Sauce is getting together with good friends with good food and good wine. When you can get those three together, you are sure to have a great time.

 

We had a great sauce (see recipe below) and the Secret Sauce working in February 2020. Lucien and Ela Vendome visited Memphis from Poland and we took  advantage of the opportunity to reconnect with a few old friends from Kraft Food Ingredients. Lucien Vendome, Mike Taylor, Jody Driver, Pam Gray and I got together along with our significant others. It was a perfect forum to tell a few of our favorite stories:

Mike Taylor, Lucien and I were driving from Frankfort Germany to Reims France several years ago. I am driving and struggling to stay awake. To keep a conversation going, I asked my car-mates to describe what their mothers cooked for meals on a daily basis.

Lucien growing up in the south of France, started with: The day would begin with a baguette and confiture…

Mike growing up in east Texas, started with: We had beans and then we had beans and if times were really good we had beans and tamales…

As the French would say “Viva La Difference!”

Jody Driver and I were at the IFT trade show quite awhile back. Jody did a masterful job of managing and enormous enterprise-wide effort. One year I can remember her being 9 months pregnant with her son Gregory (Now 25) and sneaking off to a quiet corner of  the booth to sing Happy Birthday to her then 3-year-old daughter Lindsey.

Pam Gray was always our style guru. Back in the day when Manolo Blahnik shoes were all the rage, Mike Strauch and I would have an annual over/under bet on how many pairs of shoes Pam would bring to the week-long IFT event.

The over/under was 12 and the safe bet was the over

The KFI Team back in the day

The meal we had Thursday night was a lot of fun. The old joke is: How do you cook for a world renown French Chef…You let them cook. Lucien and I have been cooking together for years. When it comes to sauces, he is the master and our meal this week was All About The Sauce!

Le Menu

Entrée

  • Citrus Melon Napoléon

Le Plat Principal

  • Rack of Lamb Provençal
  • Pommes Frites
  • Haricot Verts

La Sauce

  • Roasted Garlic a la Vendome

Dessert

Peach Cobbler A La Mode with Raspberries

(Note: Citrus, Melon Napoleon)

Le Plat Principal – Rack of Lamb, Pommes Frites and Haricot Verts

Lucien and I doing the “Culinary Shuffle”

The KFI Alumnus…Pam, Jody Lucien, Mike & Paul

Click here to watch the Culinary Master At Work

Roasted Garlic Sauce A La Vendome

Lucien called it a simple sauce. I counted over 15 ingredients and close to 7 processes. Of course, for Lucien it was simple, but the flavor was amazingly complex. By layering in flavor with:

  • Sautéing the mirepoix with herbs
  • Reducing the stock, wine and base with tomato paste
  • Roasting the garlic
  • Sautéing the shallots
  • Adding the roux
  • Condensing with immersion blender
  • Top noting with mustard and butter

The lesson is that with repetition, even the most complex task becomes simple. The sauce was magical and the evening, with its  Special Sauce was memorable

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Bread! Bread! They Cried And The Curtain Came Down With A Roll!

Apologies for the old joke. It was one of my father’s lines. I just couldn’t help myself. When I would go work with dad as a kid, many would comment how much I looked like my father and he would say: “We all have a cross to bear”. If he only knew…

With the pandemic, it is really easy to get frustrated on what we CAN NOT DO. The truth is that there is quite a bit that we can do to socialize with a group of friends over a glass of wine and a bite to eat. After we had a trial Virtual Wine Group session, someone asked about a Virtual Baguette class for an expanded Wine Group via zoom.

We had a great time making and breaking bread. Zoom is a wonderful technology and we are all getting better at using it.  It can be  a bit chaotic, but the baking class did seem to work out well. I even had my dad who passed away in 1995, talking to me. Dad taught a college speach class for years. One piece of advice from dad really payed off. MAKE SURE YOUR AUDIO VISUAL TOOLS WORK BEFORE YOU START. I don’t think that dad would have been real good with Zoom, but a little dry run certainly helped me to work out the kinks. I had planned to have two devices connected to Zoom with my MacBook connected with a slideshow and my iPhone being used to be the primary video tool. My dry-run before going live taught me that the 2 devices would create audio feedback. Hence, I went with one device and it is safe to say, I was the only one aware of the shortfall. The participants got quick glimpse of the slides and a link to this blog for the real detail. Susan did a great job of capturing the pictures used in the following.

Remember when people told jokes? My dad was a great joke teller, but he ruined lots of great jokes by cleaning them up. Some times a good “F” bomb makes a joke. I did have a really good clean joke to share, but the politically correct police pulled it because it mentioned a piece of anatomy. While I won’t share it here, I will share it with anyone who asks. PLEASE ASK down below in the comments and I will share it with you.

 

ENJOY THE SLIDE PRESENTATION

 

 

 

Click here for the Baguette Recipe

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

 

A special thanks goes out to the Berrys for providing the featured photo and the McMahons for providing the group with a Charcuterie plate. We started the session with all 7 participants making a pesto, olive oil and balsamic dip together. After the class we all enjoyed the fruits of our labor and a fun virtual conversation.

 

Virtual Napa Valley Picnic

What is the difference between 2021 and 2013? Back in 2013 we had the whole Kenny crew together for a picnic in Napa Valley. In 2021 we were thrilled to get a group together for a Virtual Napa Valley Picnic via Zoom.

Note: The feature picture  shows both a Zoom session 2021 and the real thing with Kenny crew in the Napa Valley back in 2013

While Zoom is great, we have found that having a lot of people on a call can be difficult. We heard one horror story from a friend that had a holiday Zoom call with 10 family members around the country. His dad took the lead and went around the Zoom asking participants what was going on in their lives. That led to all sorts of tales of woe…job losses, business failures, health issues. Our friend made sure to make his piece positive.

With that caveat in my head, I decided to keep my invite list for our Virtual Napa Valley picnic short and focused on the upbeat. The result was a lot of fun and the call that lasted over 2 hours as we all enjoyed the:

  • Chance to reconnect
  • Good food
  • Great wine

Taking the lead in the food department, I decided to make up a picnic basket for the 3 participants. With the theme of a Napa Valley Picnic, I had a vision of a trip we took to the Napa Valley a few years ago. There is a little gourmet grocery store where we loaded up on a few things for our picnic at the Joseph Phelps Vineyard. The memory inspired the menu of:

The beauty of Tuvi’s Hummus is that it comes with stories:

Tuvi is a friend of mine in Israel.. Tuvi and I have been friends since 1985. He is one of those people that brings amazing insight and wonderful humor to just about everything. His wife Mona is more than special. She is:

I talked to Tuvi a few months ago and asked how Mona was doing and he said: Ahh just google her.

(Tuvi and I discussing peace in the middle east or more likely the punch line of one Tuvi’s better jokes. Remember when people told jokes?)

Back in 1996 it was the year after my father had passed away and my mother spent month in Israel as part of an Elder Hostel. I was in Israel on business. We met up in Jerusalem and Tuvi hosted us for dinner. That night in Jerusalem with Tuvi and Mona, my mother was the center of attention and I came away with an understanding of why dad referred to her as the “Brains of the Operation”. She was just interested and interesting. Me I just sat back and watched. At the end of the evening Tuvi gave mom a recipe book and we have been making the hummus recipe from it for years.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

(Brian and  Lauren Kenny, Jenn and  Ethan Begun, Jess and Mike Schuler at Jospeh Phelps

Check out our itinerary for the 2013 trip: