Occasion

Season

Reality

The occasion. Right now it is the holiday season. Holiday menus are basically dictated by tradition. Whether it is a national tradition or religious tradition or a family tradition that is what generally sets your menu. If your dinner party is an occasion that is for a guest of honor, like a birthday, anniversary, graduation, something of that sort, make some dishes that the guest of honor likes. That always goes over very well. I know it sounds very basic but keep that in mind. If you are having a party just to have a party, which is the best reason to have a party, then all bets are off. You get to make what you want to make. Just remember who you are inviting and find out if they have dietary restrictions, or if they have allergies, etc., etc. If you are inviting my Dad to dinner, don’t make salmon or he is not going to eat. You want everybody to enjoy your party.

The next topic is seasonality. Go to the supermarket first, before you start writing your menu. Pick up the flier. See what is on sale. You should serve a menu of ingredients that are in season. They will be easily available, most reasonably priced and it is the best quality that you are going to find, all at the same time. Rather than writing your menu and then going to see if you can find all of your ingrdients at the store, go to the store first. See what looks good and then go home and write your menu. That is how I cook anyway.

Have Fun

And the last thing to consider is be realistic. It’s your time, your money, your skill level, your kitchen and who you choose to invite. So, make the party fun for you, first. If you do all these things, even if you are not a good cook, you can still throw a fabulous party. No one says you have to make everything. I don’t. You shouldn’t. You want to be able to have a good time at your own party.

It’s My Party, And I’ll Cry If I Want To

Everybody is going to look at you to gauge how the party is going. If you are all frazzled and sweaty then everybody feels like, “Maybe we shouldn’t have come” or “I feel bad for putting them out”. If you don’t have a good time, other people are not going to have a good time. And that is basically the reality of hosting. Create an experience for your guests and yourself. Don’t forget yourself in this equation.

Pre-Party Planning Prevents Panic

Even if you plan ahead, there may be a crisis and there usually is. It is how you handle that crisis that is going to dictate whether this party is going to be memorable. You can burn the turkey at Thanksgiving, but you can have fun with it. I’m not sure how, but there’s no reason to loose your composure at your own party. If you loose it, then everybody else is not going to have a good time. You can still have a good time. (Almost) everything is salvageable. Everybody makes mistakes.

Stay Cool

Never let them see you sweat. Those are my final thoughts about planning your menu. Tomorrow we are going to go on to setting your table and how to make it look visually attractive. Sometimes everyone fits around your table and sometimes you’ve got a crowd. You got to put people in the corner and in the closets and in the bathroom, whatever. Just so everybody has a place to sit down.

Variety Is Important

The next point I would like to make is that you want to avoid using the same ingredients in multiple courses. There are just too many good things to cook out there to do that. Sometimes it happens, and remember, these are not hard and steadfast rules. But variety is the spice of life.

Create New Flavor Compositions

Second, you want to watch your flavor compositions from course to course, so that they don’t repeat. Let’s say you are serving an Italian menu and you begin with minestrone soup. The soup has a lot of vegetables in it, beans, pasta and it is tomato based. In your main course, you are serving chicken parmesan or lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs. You have got a tomato based soup and then you’ve got a tomato based entrée, so you want to try avoid that. It can also happen if you have Fettuccini Alfredo, which is a cream based sauce, and then for dessert you serve a cannoli with whipped cream or a custard for your dessert. You want to vary your flavored composition from course to course.

Monotoned Presentations

The third thing is that you need to be aware of, is serving multiple ingredients in the same course that are the same color. Maybe you are serving staemed broccoli, and a spinach pasta with a pesto sauce. It would be just green on green on green all over the plate! Unless you are trying to create a monotone dish for some purpose, you want to present dishes with color contrasts on your plates. It’s much more visually stimulating.

Opposites Attract

Which brings me to the next point, opposites attract. Sometimes, whether it is flavor, color, temperature or texture, opposites can work well together. Think of a sweet and sour sauce. There are spicy and bland combinations like a salsa and guacamole. Or in terms of temperature, a popular dessert is hot apple pie ala mode, which is warm apple pie with ice cream. These combinations lend themselves to very interesting taste sensations. The opposites, or contrasts come together to produce a more interesting dish.

Engage The Senses

So that is what I wanted to go over today. All of these tips have something to do with engaging the senses. The more you do that during your meal, the more interesting it is for your guests. You can even engage their auditory senses. For instance, have you ever been to a restaurant where they serve a fajita platter and it comes out all sizzling and everyone is looking around trying to figure out what is going on? Sometimes I order fajitas, just for the show. I am surprised that there are not more restaurants that serve dishes like that. Can you imagine capturing everyone’s attention like that, at your dinner table, when you bring out the main course?

It Makes Good Sense(s)

So obviously, you are trying to make sure everyone has a good taste in their mouth and smells the wonderful aromas of the foods that you are cooking, and feels the different textures of your foods you are serving. The more that you engage the senses of your guests, the better your party is going to be, the more fun everyone is going to have. This will be a dinner party to remember.

Hi Marty Richardson from chefmartyrich.com with a few final thoughts about planning your dinner menu.

Occasion

Season

Reality

The occasion. Right now it is the holiday season. Holiday menus are basically dictated by tradition. Whether it is a national tradition or religious tradition or a family tradition that is what generally sets your menu. If your dinner party is an occasion that is for a guest of honor, like a birthday, anniversary, graduation, something of that sort, make some dishes that the guest of honor likes. That always goes over very well. I know it sounds very basic but keep that in mind. If you are having a party just to have a party, which is the best reason to have a party, then all bets are off. You get to make what you want to make. Just remember who you are inviting and find out if they have dietary restrictions, or if they have allergies, etc., etc. If you are inviting my Dad to dinner, don’t make salmon or he is not going to eat. You want everybody to enjoy your party.

The next topic is seasonality. Go to the supermarket first, before you start writing your menu. Pick up the flier. See what is on sale. You should serve a menu of ingredients that are in season. They will be easily available, most reasonably priced and it is the best quality that you are going to find, all at the same time. Rather than writing your menu and then going to see if you can find all of your ingrdients at the store, go to the store first. See what looks good and then go home and write your menu. That is how I cook anyway.

Have Fun

And the last thing to consider is be realistic. It’s your time, your money, your skill level, your kitchen and who you choose to invite. So, make the party fun for you, first. If you do all these things, even if you are not a good cook, you can still throw a fabulous party. No one says you have to make everything. I don’t. You shouldn’t. You want to be able to have a good time at your own party.

It’s My Party, And I’ll Cry If I Want To

Everybody is going to look at you to gauge how the party is going. If you are all frazzled and sweaty then everybody feels like, “Maybe we shouldn’t have come” or “I feel bad for putting them out”. If you don’t have a good time, other people are not going to have a good time. And that is basically the reality of hosting. Create an experience for your guests and yourself. Don’t forget yourself in this equation.

Pre-Party Planning Prevents Panic

Even if you plan ahead, there may be a crisis and there usually is. It is how you handle that crisis that is going to dictate whether this party is going to be memorable. You can burn the turkey at Thanksgiving, but you can have fun with it. I’m not sure how, but there’s no reason to loose your composure at your own party. If you loose it, then everybody else is not going to have a good time. You can still have a good time. (Almost) everything is salvageable. Everybody makes mistakes.

Stay Cool

Never let them see you sweat. Those are my final thoughts about planning your menu. Tomorrow we are going to go on to setting your table and how to make it look visually attractive. Sometimes everyone fits around your table and sometimes you’ve got a crowd. You got to put people in the corner and in the closets and in the bathroom, whatever. Just so everybody has a place to sit down. Come on back tomorrow and I will have another good video for you. Thanks.

Hi. Marty Richardson here from chefmartyrich.com. Welcome back to our daily tip series. We are continuing our discussion of creating a dinner menu.

Variety Is Important

The next point I would like to make is that you want to avoid using the same ingredients in multiple courses. There are just too many good things to cook out there to do that. Sometimes it happens, and remember, these are not hard and steadfast rules. But variety is the spice of life.

Create New Flavor Compositions

Second, you want to watch your flavor compositions from course to course, so that they don’t repeat. Let’s say you are serving an Italian menu and you begin with minestrone soup. The soup has a lot of vegetables in it, beans, pasta and it is tomato based. In your main course, you are serving chicken parmesan or lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs. You have got a tomato based soup and then you’ve got a tomato based entrée, so you want to try avoid that. It can also happen if you have Fettuccini Alfredo, which is a cream based sauce, and then for dessert you serve a cannoli with whipped cream or a custard for your dessert. You want to vary your flavored composition from course to course.

Monotoned Presentations

The third thing is that you need to be aware of, is serving multiple ingredients in the same course that are the same color. Maybe you are serving staemed broccoli, and a spinach pasta with a pesto sauce. It would be just green on green on green all over the plate! Unless you are trying to create a monotone dish for some purpose, you want to present dishes with color contrasts on your plates. It’s much more visually stimulating.

Opposites Attract

Which brings me to the next point, opposites attract. Sometimes, whether it is flavor, color, temperature or texture, opposites can work well together. Think of a sweet and sour sauce. There are spicy and bland combinations like a salsa and guacamole. Or in terms of temperature, a popular dessert is hot apple pie ala mode, which is warm apple pie with ice cream. These combinations lend themselves to very interesting taste sensations. The opposites, or contrasts come together to produce a more interesting dish.

Engage The Senses

So that is what I wanted to go over today. All of these tips have something to do with engaging the senses. The more you do that during your meal, the more interesting it is for your guests. You can even engage their auditory senses. For instance, have you ever been to a restaurant where they serve a fajita platter and it comes out all sizzling and everyone is looking around trying to figure out what is going on? Sometimes I order fajitas, just for the show. I am surprised that there are not more restaurants that serve dishes like that. Can you imagine capturing everyone’s attention like that, at your dinner table, when you bring out the main course?

It Makes Good Sense(s)

So obviously, you are trying to make sure everyone has a good taste in their mouth and smells the wonderful aromas of the foods that you are cooking, and feels the different textures of your foods you are serving. The more that you engage the senses of your guests, the better your party is going to be, the more fun everyone is going to have. This will be a dinner party to remember.

So that’s the tips for today. We will have a few more tomorrow and then we will move on to setting the table, so we can get straight to the food. Thanks for watching and I will talk to you soon. Thanks.

Hi everyone. Marty Richardson here, from chefmartyrich.com. Today I want to discuss guidelines for creating a dinner menu.

What’s Too Much Food?

The first thing I want you to consider is the cumulative effect of all the food you are serving your guests. You are starting with appetizers, then on to the main course, starch, vegetable, bread and dessert…that’s a lot of food. And how often is it when you are sitting at dinner, and the dessert tray comes up and your eyes say “Yes!” and your stomach says, “There’s just no way”.

It’s About Timing

What happens is that it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that you are full. So during happy hour, you are serving a lot of appetizers, when you get to the main course, your 20 minutes is up. Your stomach is saying, “That’s enough”. Dessert rolls out and you don’t have room! Well you are spending most of your time, money, and effort on your main course and dessert at most dinner parties. You want to make sure people are going to get to taste the main event.

Portion Control

So keep your appetizers light and small. I really think that appetizers are only there to give the early arrivals something to do while we wait for the other guests to arrive.

Light Starch Please

The next thing I want to discuss is you want to limit the number of starches per course. Starches loosely being described as bread, it could be grains, it could be pastas or rice, or whatever. You want to keep that to a minimum so that people can get to the main course and dessert before filling up.

Looks Good And Good For You Too

You want to also think about your ingredients in terms of nutritional value and aesthetic value. Now what does that mean? It means bulk up on vegetables. If you buy a lot of vegetables it is going to keep the budget for your party low. It’s going to provide the most color for each course. Vegetables are going to provide the greatest amount of texture on the plate, whether they are raw or cooked. Vegetables can be used as garnishes. Vegetables can be used as receptacles like for garnishes or dips. You can hollow out a red pepper and put dip in there. They are also less filling. So there are a lot of reasons why you should serve a whole lot of vegetables at your dinner party. You give people a lot of things to try. And it is not going to cost you a lot of money to do that.

More Tips

So come back tomorrow. We are going to have more tips on creating a dinner menu. This is probably going to take me two or three episodes before we get through this topic. And then I will probably still think of more tips after that!

So go to the website, www.chefmartyrich.com, and leave a comment. We will create videos specifically about topics that you are interested in. Thanks very much for watching. Welcome to the holidays!