Layer In Flavor

Great chefs will layer in flavor to deliver amazing dishes. One of the ways to really impress your guests at a dinner party is to serve dishes with multiple flavors that are complementary and have been ‘layered’ into a dish. When you add dimension with texture you hit the culinary daily double.

What does layering in flavor really mean? A great example is preparing shrimp.

You can just cook it in boiling water. It is pretty bland.
Or you can layer in flavor by:
- Seasoning with olive oil, salt & pepper
- Grill it on a wood-fired grill
- Add seasoning: salt, pepper or maybe chili powder
- Sprinkle it with fresh herbs
- Serve it with a southwestern sauce
- Complement your dish by serving it with a wonderful sauvignon blanc
These are all examples of layering in flavor

A great example of this is a Romaine Wedge dish that I make. It combines:

• Fresh crisp lettuce
• A gorgonzola vinaigrette
• Crisp bacon
• Homemade garlic croutons
• Tomato, olive, onion, herb topping

Check out the recipe

There is a lot going on with this dish but it all comes to come together so well.

Not everyone can pick up the flavor nuances of the specific dimensions. I certainly cannot. But I know it taste great and I have feedback from dinner guests that reconfirm it. You know you have something special when people come to a party that you are hosting and ask for a specific dish. I have gotten numerous requests for the romaine wedge. Conversely, you will can get complaints that you didn’t make a certain dish.

I make a grilled/roasted shrimp that is stuffed with Gorgonzola and wrapped with bacon. It has all the basic food groups…layered together. It is the kind of item that you bring to a party and people line up to get their share. We have a good friend from England who is very proper in a British way who has let me know that she is disappointed that I didn’t make my shrimp appetizer.

Check out the recipe

Think of the flavor difference between the standard boiled (overcooked) shrimp with jarred cocktail sauce versus a grill-roasted shrimp stuffed with Gorgonzola wrapped in bacon. Layering in flavor is a good thing.

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You Can’t Make Everyone Happy

One of the challenges you can face developing a menu for a dinner party is if you should avoid an item that you know some people will like and some people will not like such as: Seafood, Lamb, Spicy, Coconut etc.

A classic story involved an impromptu dinner party that my buddy Lucien and I cooked for. One Friday afternoon we decided to have a dinner party the next day and to feature rack of lamb. With short notice we started inviting people to our “rack of lamb” dinner. Pretty quickly the number of guests got to over 20 and at least a third said on the front end: “I don’t like lamb but…”

My favorite memory of the evening was four or five of the “haters” fighting over the lasts lamb chops. There is something about a rack of lamb cooked to perfection. Lamb can be gamey. If it is overcooked it can be tough and flavorless. The lesson I learned that night is that if you sear it on the front end at high heat and cook it to medium rare, your guests are in for a treat.

It is amazing to me how many people don’t like seafood. Fish can be a strong flavor. Seafood that is a little off is really bad. Again, fresh seafood prepared correctly is phenomenal. I would guess that over 20% of consumers simply don’t like fish.

My parents own a house on Long Island New York. When we were in our twenties my wife Susan and I would throw what we called our annual “Hamptoons” party. Our friends from college and work would gather at the house in Westhampton and the highlight was a lobster and clam feast. And yes, there was alcohol involved. Invariably there would be several newcomers that had never had lobster and to whom the thought of eating raw clams was unpalatable. Susan would show the newbies how to eat her favorite crustaceans and we had many a convert. We would also give out the “Poison lobster” award to someone who got over served alcohol. Trust me, the lobster was never the problem.

You are never going to make everyone happy. When it comes to polarizing flavors like lamb, seafood and coconut, I say go for it. While you won’t please everyone, the chances are pretty good that you will have a few converts.

Tapas Are Fun

Tapas menus are great for supper club dinner parties because they promote interaction. I am in the process of writing a Tapas menu and we had a trial run party this week in preparation for three dinner parties for our neighborhood supper club. The party was a lot of fun because:

Everyone helped out
The food was great
Tapas require interaction
I got good feedback on the menu
The menu brought back great memories

Tapas Menu

Involvement Is Key

Most people like to help. If you are in a supper club chances are you like to cook, and even if you don’t, you want to help. The way the party worked was:

The mise en place had been prepared and the goal was to get the cooking out of the way and serve the Tapas all at once.
As people arrived we gave them a drink, showed them the menu and told them what their responsibilities would be.
After a “drinks-worth” of direction, the whole group went to work.
We set up work-stations with ingredients and cooking apparatus:
- Annie had the oven station to warm the Tortillas and bread.
- Jim and Kim had the two stove top stations:
  - Gambas. Peppers & Salad
  - Meatballs & Tomato cream sauce

Steve dazzled us with his skills at the fry station:
- Calamari
- Ravioli
Linda had the wine station
Susan was in charge of coordinating serving dishes and utensils
Mom had responsibility for dessert
I acted like a clueless camp counselor and bounced from station to station pretending I knew what I was doing.
In an amazingly short order everything got cooked to perfection and was served all at once.

We started with 10 items and I had intended to cut it down to 6, but the group only wanted to cut one item. The kale salad (the only item close to healthy) didn’t make the cut. (shocking) The crispy squid (Calamari) was a big hit, but I cut it because it is difficult to make without a sizable fry station.

I made several other changes to make it a better fit for a supper club. I will make the spinach ravioli and provide them frozen to all three dinner parties. Making ravioli requires having a pasta maker and ravioli mold that most people don’t have. The recipe called for fried ravioli which is easy with my fry station, but boiling water is easier and safer for the average cook.

The Tapas brought back memories of our recent trip to Barcelona. Linda and Steve just happened to have been in Barcelona at the same time as us and we had a real Tapas dinner together there. It was one of those nights where the waiter and chef took over and we were smart enough to just shutup and let them do their magic. We had had tapas before, but never quite like the real thing we had that night.

Tapas are fun, whether you are in Barcelona Spain or Bartlett TN

(Steve, Linda, Susan and Paul in Barcelona with a wonderful array of Tapas)