First Impressions Are Key

Whether you are having a dinner party for 2 or 200, it is important to set a positive first impression that establishes the tone for the evening. It doesn’t have to be over the top awesome. It can be as simple as having something beautifully aromatic in the oven (Potatoes Gran Mere ) or an enticing cocktail (Cranberry Mint Mojito ). Giving your guests the impression that they are in for something special will set your dinner party apart from the ordinary.

Marketing can be fun!

Speaking of over the top awesome, Chef Lucien Vendome and our Marketing team at Kraft Food Ingredients put on many spectacular events, but the event we staged at The Research Chef’s Association in Montreal was something special. An Ice Pyramid that highlighted our brands set the first impression. KFI sold industrial ingredients to major food manufacturers. One thing we offered that most of our competitors couldn’t was the ability to license the use of our brands along with the sale of bulk ingredients. So today, whenever you see an Oreo Lava Cake, chances are that our Ice Pyramid imbedded with Kraft brands, planted the seed of the idea.

This is where you are probably thinking…It is easy to set a phenomenal impression when you have an enormous Marketing budget. Well the reality at KFI was that we had great ideas and virtually no budget. The key was that we did most of the work ourselves. As for the Ice Pyramid:

We designed the pyramid ourselves
We built the base for the pyramid in Lucien’s garage and reassembled it ourselves
We found and ice sculpture at Mont Tremblanc who did the ice work for self promotion
We had our entire Sales and Marketing team on site at 6 am on the morning of the show putting all the pieces together
We were scrambling 5 minutes before the doors opened to get all the final touches in place. (I still remember our friend, Chef John Li, showing up just as we needed him and rolling up his sleeves to help out).

To this day, attendees thought we had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to host the event. The truth is we spent a fraction of what people thought. We got it done with creativity and sweat equity.

The funny story behind the pyramid was in the assembly of the base. To save money we had to build the base ourselves. This base had to be strong and stable enough to support 3,000 lbs. of ice. Lucien, in addition to being a world renown chef, is an expert furniture maker. He had built the base in his garage. He and I had assembled it in his driveway. It was made with the highest grade of wood. We knew it was perfect. Then we took it apart and shipped it from Memphis to Montreal. At 6 am on the morning of the event, we got everyone together and had two teams reassemble it from each end. When we got to the middle we were 6 inches off. Panic set in! Instantly, Lucien came out with the circular saw to trim the extra six inches. I started screaming NO!. We took it apart, and started from one end and it came together perfectly.

The Pyramid

The Base

The Team

If that pyramid had crashed, we would have made an unforgettable first impression and it would have been the end of my Marketing career.

First impressions are key. The next time you are hosting a dinner party, think about how you can impress your guests at the start. Quite often, it is that first impression that lasts forever.

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.

What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong

“A disaster beyond your imagination will occur!”

This line from “Phantom of the Opera” is with me every time we host a Supper Club event. No matter what happens, with a little planning and some quick thinking no one will ever know you had a problem.

Working with Kraft we staged culinary events around the world. And, pretty much what could go wrong did go wrong. With that said 99% of the attendees at those jinxed events had no idea we had a problem.

The two biggest issues that occur are:

Something gets over cooked
You run out of a feature item

Having backups is the easy answer. Most cooks will have an extra or two in the hopper. A microwave’s defrost features work wonders. Quick substitutions are virtually never noticed.

Then there are those disasters that you can’t plan for:

We once hosted a culinary event in San Diego that was disrupted by the outbreak of the war in Iraq. The show went on and we got to watch lots of action as the event was held on a beach in site of the Naval Air Station.

There was the trade show in Säo Paulo where our kitchen equipment short-circuited. Every time a chef touched a pan he got shocked. We had an electrician do the cooking until the problem got fixed.

The classic was a trade show in Chicago where we were featuring an Oreo Lava Cake. To this day I don’t really know what happened, but after day one of a 3 day show we ran out. We bought the chef that short ordered the lava cakes a new calculator and served lots of Oreo cheesecake.

When in doubt, over order. To this day my wife Susan complains about me overcooking. Guilty! In my opinion leftovers are never a disaster!

My Guide To Unbelievable Seafood

The Philippines is a country of over 7,000 islands, so it makes sense that it has a lot of fantastic seafood. My culinary guide to the Philippines was Bobby Rufino. Bobby was a true gourmand and when it came to restaurants in Manila, he was an expert.

The tradition in the Philippines is that when a Filipino returns to Manila, a crowd of family and friends meets them at the airport. In 1985, I was living in the San Francisco Bay area when I first travelled to the Philippines. I thought that there couldn’t be any Filipinos left in the Philippines because so many lived in Daly City California. Consequently, I was shocked when I came through customs and was greeted by a huge crowd. They had grandstands set up to accommodate what seemed like thousands of people. A devious Bobby Rufino, had hired two beautiful girls to greet my travelling companion Vince Cuile with flower lei. When the girls approached Vince, The crowd starting chanting: “Give her a kiss, Give her a kiss”. I can still see Bobby Rufino watching the scene unfold and laughing his devious laugh. Bobby’s laugh has always reminded me of the cartoon character Muttley. That first experience was the first of the many laughs I shared with my friend Bobby.

Click to hear Muttley’s imitation of Bobby’s laugh

Bobby introduced me to the Philippines culinary world. Early on, he took me to a Chinese restaurant. He explained to me that in the Philippines, you could get Chinese-Chinese food. Not the American-Chinese food we get in the states. Chinese-Chinese food is fantastic and so different from what we know in the States. Sushi is also great in Manila. I can remember enjoying Nigiri (Raw fish) in a Makati restaurant and Bobby casually asking me: “You have had your hepatitis shots, haven’t you?” As you can imagine, that took some of the enjoyment out of that meal because, while the Chinese food is different in the Philippines, so is the bacteria and it can be dangerous. I got hepatitis shots before my next trip.

Where Bobby’s expertise came to the forefront was at seafood restaurants. The Philippines is famous for restaurants that offer a wide array of live fish ( in tanks), amazingly fresh fish on ice and a cornucopia of fresh produce. You roll through the market side with a shopping cart selecting what you want, then bringing it to your personal cook who prepares your fish to order. Picture this, a diminutive clerk wrestling a 3 pound spiny lobster that you selected. I actually worried that the poor guy would lose the wrestling match and fall into the tank. Bobby would pick out a variety of fish and other ingredients and then direct the cook. I can still remember a marlin in black bean sauce, a grilled lobster with a toasted garlic butter and a crab dish with lobster sauce. The combination of fresh ingredients, great cooks and Bobby’s masterful instruction was magical.

Click here to take a video tour of a seafood restaurant like Bobby’s favorites

Bobby was an amazing guy. He is one of those people that would not respond immediately to a question. He would pause to think, and then explain with insightful logic. In the late 1980’s during the coup that ended the Marcos era, Bobby lived off of Makati Avenue a main thoroughfare in Manila. One night he called telling me that the night before he woke up to a rat-tat-tat noise. He thought his air condition was on the blink. Come to find out that it was machine gun fire from tanks in the military coup. I pleaded with Bobby to leave Manila and get to the safety of the housing compound at our San Pablo plant 60 miles away. Bobby said not to worry, the tanks are firing in the opposite direction and that his wife didn’t want to leave Manila. The next morning he left for San Pablo.

Another time, Bobby was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack during one of my visits. In his hospital bed, Bobby penned out lengthy instructions for that night’s meal at the seafood restaurant. He detailed what to buy and how to have it cooked. The meal was great, but it wasn’t the same without Bobby.

When Bobby came to the States, it was all about the beef. Bobby had lived in Texas for a few years early in his career and he had a passion for his red meat. For Bobby, the seafood was great in the Philippines, but when he came to the U.S. he loved his steak. I once took him to Smith and Wollensky’s in Manhattan and then to see the play Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. We had seats up near the Orchestra and when the Phantom threw the flames in the final scene, a jet lagged, well fed and startled Bobby, literally jumped into my lap. Machine gun fire didn’t phase him, but the combination of steak and the Phantom got to him.

Bobby was my guide to the Manila Culinary world and many life lessons. He is no longer with us, but the memories of him live with many. If you ever get to the Philippines, enjoy the seafood.

Note: The featured photo is of Bobby in 1985 with my daughter Jennifer, then 14 months old. Below is a recent picture of Jenn with her boys Max (5) and Dylan (2) at a maple syrup sugar shack near Ottawa Canada