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 True story. 

 We're sending passed apps during the cocktail hour of a rehearsal dinner last week.  A woman grabs one of my servers and announces, "I am allergic to tomatoes, garlic, green beans and corn, and, oh yeah, I don't do wheat either." 

  Gee, thanks for the heads up.  Don't bother with a phone call the day before, or even a couple of hours before, just announce to us right spack dab in the heat of the service your food phobias and we'll all stop trying to work for the other 47 people in the house right now to focus on your needs.

  Deep in the darkest parts of my mind I imagined myself dragging her by the hair to the alley out back and beating her senseless with the blunt side of my cleaver. Now, everyone put down your collective hands from your mouths because I would never do such a thing.  I don't look good in orange.

 Thanks for listening.

 On the other side of the pendulum lies the customers who trust us.  They will bring 10 or so of their friends and book the Space. (one grand minimum during the week ).  An adventurous group that if there are food qualms, we know ahead of time. Basically, they say to Tim and Vincent, let it rip. You see, we are at our best when set free. 


 We were happy to have such a group the other night.  We started them off with a little Charcuterie

On the left there is Rabbit sausage, in the center our own country ham, and in the foreground house smoked pistachio sausage.  There are also dishes of pickled vegetables.  For the first course, we have a medley of heirloom tomatoes.
 

 They are garnished with a fried squash blossom, basil, olive oil and  little pearls of balsamic vinegar ( a little molecular gastro trick).  Next we have seasonal Chanterelles paired with Diver Scallops.

 

That's a sweet potato coulis and sweet pecan dust also on the plate. Yeah, I know, the photo needs to be rotated.  I dropped off my photographer at college the day before so back off.

 Next is the salad course.  It featured "raviolis" (actually raw) made of thin sliced yellow beets filled with goat's cheese, and then endive, apple, arugula, pomegranate and more beets.

For the main course, we used local Rock Barn Pork Flank steak served over chiffonade of Kale, Lardon, red pepper and a sprinkle of corn.

Finally, a peach tart tatin topped with buttermilk sorbet.

We don't do these dinners for money, we do them because after 25 years, we still love cooking. It just needs to be on our terms.  Trust me, there is better value when we design the menu instead of you.  So the next time you have a group of friends and you want to go on a culinary adventure, drop me line and we'll be happy to cook for you.