Menu Inspiration – Gone Bad

The key to making a great tasting dish is practice. It’s great to get ideas from a restaurant. It is easy to get recipes off of the internet. You can’t however, expect to make a great dish the first time you try something. The medallions I made trying to replicate a great meal I had at a restaurant recently were not that good. The key to supper club dinner party success is practice, practice, practice.

Think about it. The chef at the restaurant has probably made that dish hundreds of times. Every time he or she makes it he/she is learning something. Most people cooking for a supper club dinner party are making that dish for the first time. It isn’t that hard to practice a little on your family. Even better, when I write a menu for a supper club, I will invite friends over for a test run. It is amazing, but I haven’t poisoned anyone yet and its rare that someone will turn down an invitation. Like the book Impromptu Friday Nights says… Everyone likes to socialize over a meal, even if they are really guinea pigs.

Where did I go wrong with my inspired menu?

1. I replaced the beef filet with pork tenderloin medallions. I did this because I was making an extra meal for a friend that just got out of the hospital. With pork you don’t have to worry as much about cooking to temperature and as the meal had to be re-heated the risk of overcooking beef is really high. In hindsight pork tenderloin medallions are not beef tenderloin. As the old movies line states: Jell-O will never be crème brulee and crème brulee will never be Jell-O
2. The crust was a little dry. I used ½ cup of butter with ½ cup of breadcrumb as a base. You can never go wrong with a little more butter. The next time I will make it with ½ cup of butter to a ¼ cup of crumb. When it comes to flavor, fat is good!
3. The flavors of the crusts were not as impactful as I would have liked. In the future I will double the amount of flavor. For the Parmesan, instead of ½ cup of parm, I will make it one cup. For the blue cheese, instead of ¼ cup, I will make it one cup. For all of the crusts I will add a tablespoon of sautéed shallot. You can never go wrong with a little more flavor.

In my last blog I promised to publish the recipes. Well, you are going to have to wait. I am going to keep practicing until I get it right, or run out of friends willing to be guinea pigs.

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons 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 that sell books.