Special Catering @ "Be Primitive" Asian Art Gallery.

Last Saturday we worked a special catering dinner for a party of 75 guests at a very unique art gallery called, "Be Primitive". This particular art gallery was quite an expensive one, with price tags ranging from the hundreds to the thousands of dollars. The owners have a collection of all sorts of weird, intriguing, ancient and cultural art pieces from around the world, but with most of its focuses on the theme of Asia. There must of have been hundreds of pieces of wooden to metal statues, paintings and furniture. And if you point at anyone of the art work, the owner would tell you where it's from and the fascinating story behind it.


When we arrived at the art gallery, I was looking for a kitchen to drop off my knives and belongings, but to my surprise... There wasn't one! Chef Daniel had failed to mention to me that we had to setup our own kitchen inside the art gallery with plastic tables and portable induction burners. Ohhh Boy....

Setting up the our kitchen from scratch.

We first had to unload bags after bags of ingredients out of the car.

After an hour and a half later, we finally started preparing our foods.

Because we were behind schedule, I didn't have time to take out my camera to take some pictures during our earlier preparations. But just a quick short summary, we had 4 h'ordeuvres to prep ranging from vegeterian spring rolls, to hamachi tartar wrapped with rice paper, and a skirt steak grilled with a cumin rub. Then I had to butcher a fairly large piece of fresh tuna, then I had to cut them into small cubes (brunoise) for our tuna tartar course.

After about an hour and a half later, we were pumping out our first course of the night. 

All plates were set, wiped and ready for our first course.
Soup of Corn with basil, ginger, lemon grass infused and shrimp garnish.

Cream of Asparagus, Leek and Potato Soup was the althernative option.

Next up was the tuna tartar that I had prepared.

Tuna Tartar with brunoise melons, cucumbers, avocadoes and Tomato Water

Right before the waiters picks up the plate, we lift off the white pipe to reveal the layers of color.

As we follow with the main course, it was lamb racks with roasted bok choy and spicy vegetable fried rice. I couldn't take any picture of this dish because it was a hot plate and we had to be fast with our serve to keep it as hot as possible for our diners. So following on to desserts.

There are two dessert courses. The first dessert course was strawberries coated with sugar, sprinkled with raspberry infused semolina crumble and a scoop of white chocolate lime sorbet. It was served in a beautiful martini glass and it was delicious. The idea of a semolina crumble with infusion of fruits or berries was brilliant.

Macerated strawberries with raspberry infused semolina crumble and white chocolate lime sorbet 

 

The desserts are inspected again for any finger prints or imperfections. Everything needs to be prefect. And as you can tell, we've already set up plates for the last dessert course that will be following shortly after.

The last dessert course consisted of a complex layering of different types of flavorings, textures and techniques. I couldn't remember all that was in it but I remember it had a layer of green tea mousse, peanut butter crunch, chocolate pound cake, vanilla sponge and etc. It was just heaven on a plate. I have never seen dessert like it.

Chef Daniel plating this master piece of dessert.

I don't know what this dessert is called, so I am just going to name it "Heaven"

And to finish off the night, we had plates of varies types of chocolates for our guests to try.

Chef Daniel is amazing with his chocolate work and in the next few months, when the weather is colder, I will be working with him doing some chocolate work. That is something I am looking forward to and I know I'll get to see where he draws his ideas and inspirations.

After all the guests are served and happy, it is time for us to relax and enjoy a few drinks on the host.

 Cheers everyone! (Btw, I'm just drinking water... in a fancy class. )