Calling ATOT chefs - updated with pics - party held.

[Drako]

Surf and Turf.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...h-garlic-cerdo-y-gambas-al-ajillo-recipe.html

 

[Sonikku]

Fish n chips

 

[yuchai]

Not many alternatives based on your restrictions. The easiest way to "wow" the audience is by having quality/special ingredients. Seafood would have been easy, for example baked/broiled live lobster is so easy to make and easily impresses. Also live oysters. Just shuck and serve on the half shell with some ice. Buy some good cocktail shrimp to go along with it. Easy and classy.

In your case you gotta go with stuff like premium prosciutto/jamon, cheeses and some fancy dry aged beef. Go with quality ingredients since it's not likely you can wow the audience with fancy cooking skills/preparations.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

If you really want to wow them, and money is no object, you could pick up some Miyazaki Wagyu ribeyes:

http://debragga.com/japanese-wagyu-from-miyazaki-region-12-oz-ribeye-steak___BW-JAP-RIB-12.asp

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Somebody mentioned duck confit. I'd second that. Fairly simple. Wide array of greens side dish can compliment like chard, brocolli, and asparagus. A squash ravioli can sate an appetite that does not care for the duck and serve as plate base. Sauces are a toss up between somethin savory mushroom or lite white. For this crowd maybe both on the side.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Duck confit is good. The only thing is that you have to be careful with salting it, because if you overdo it even slightly it makes it also inedible with the amount of saltiness. My palate isn't very salty which might have something to do with it, but the times I made it I was really struggling to keep the meat from being way too salty.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Why not buy a sous vide thing if this is so important? Opens up a bunch of new possibilities.

Also, do you have a decent blender?

I have a good blender, a good food processor, and a stick blender.

I understand the benefits of the sous vide, but I do not want to feed guests when I use it the first time.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Not many alternatives based on your restrictions. The easiest way to "wow" the audience is by having quality/special ingredients.

I live in New England (just south of Maine). Lobster doesn't impress anyone up here. It can be purchased for $4.99 a lb in some places.

 

[Ophir]

Didn't read the whole thread, but I would definitely advise against steaks or roasts where degree of doneness matters. It's impossible to cook these to a temp that will satisfy everyone ... e.g. I would be bummed with anything past rare, others will be repulsed by anything less than medium.

I would recommend something braised, like a beef bourguignon or rendang, or something interesting like a paella. I'm a big fan of pork belly confit. Put that on top of a pea puree and you'll blow them away. These are relatively easy to make, are pretty impossible to screw-up, and are pretty much universally revered.

 

[KMFJD]

Malaysian Beef Rendang served over rice, chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce as the side?

 

[Markbnj]

Didn't read the whole thread, but I would definitely advise against steaks or roasts where degree of doneness matters.

I agree generally, but I don't know about roasts. Steaks, yeah, you better be prepared to cook to order. If you are then it can be fun, but hard to pull off. Roasts, if you cook to medium-rare in the center then there will usually be portions to suit everyone but those who like rare, and they're more or less... rare.

 

[OutHouse]

you said cost is not an issue. hire a personal chef have him come up with a menu, make it and 20 min before your guest arrive kick him out and take the credit.

fyi, if you dont have experience with beef wellington dont do it. real easy to mess it up.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

you said cost is not an issue. hire a personal chef have him come up with a menu, make it and 20 min before your guest arrive kick him out and take the credit.

fyi, if you dont have experience with beef wellington dont do it. real easy to mess it up.

I asked him about a pro and he said that was a non starter. I have no idea how he's going to do any of this. Unless I am mistaken he isn't going with what he knows, but doesn't want to do sous vide, as if that had nearly a tenth of the uncertainty of anything else he could try.

 

[yuchai]

I live in New England (just south of Maine). Lobster doesn't impress anyone up here. It can be purchased for $4.99 a lb in some places.

I am in NYC, and can also sometimes get lobsters for about $5 a pound live from Asian markets. I make it often for guests and people always think it's fancy stuff, because they never make it themselves so they have no idea how much it really costs, and restaurants always charge a premium price for it.

Anyway you also seem to want to avoid anything that's new, which is understandable when cooking for guests.

That brings me back to my original point - you gotta just make what you normally feel comfortable with or is easy to make, except that you go with some extra quality ingredients than you normally use.

 

[stlc8tr]

Four pages but no one suggested foie gras? For shame.

Try a pan seared foie gras dish. It's pretty damn amazing!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/12/food-lab-pan-seared-foie-gras-how-to.html

 

[SSSnail]

ATOT, I am disappoint. Four whole pages, and no one mentioned hookers and blow. Tsk tsk.

 

[disappoint]

you said cost is not an issue. hire a personal chef have him come up with a menu, make it and 20 min before your guest arrive kick him out and take the credit.

fyi, if you dont have experience with beef wellington dont do it. real easy to mess it up.

I swear if ATOT was tasked with designing and building a car, just an ordinary grocery getter passenger car, there would at some point be a nuclear meltdown. Because MOAR. Moar power, more passenger room, more flashy, more 0 to 1 x 10^32 m/s, more everything. Someone somewhere along the line would suggest nuclear fusion as a power source.

Seriously just go with something simple before you end up way over your head. I stand by my suggestion for Filet Mignon with bordelaise sauce with mushrooms and caramelized carrots. Simple, easy. You can even make the sauce a day ahead, refrigerate it and reheat it day of. Though the sauce is so easy you shouldn't even have to. And no you don't have to make the sauce authentic with bone marrow. Just skip the marrow, no one will care and it will still taste great. If your guests actually ask don't lie, tell them you skipped the marrow because you didn't have any on hand. A chef that can't be creative and modify a recipe to the ingredients on hand or to his taste might as well be a creationist. Not that there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Sure you can skip the marrow. Hell, might as well skip the demi-glace too. Making Béarnaise? Who needs tarragon? Or shallots? Screw that. Substitute. Beurre blanc? Who needs butter? Fucking improvise.

Look, the problem with filet is that it is pretty pedestrian. I'm not wealthy and have it once or twice a month. It's not going to wow doctors and politicians and the OP is looking to impress.

 

[Scarpozzi]

You can't go wrong with smoked boston butts....pulled pork feeds the masses. 1 roast would do it.

Of course, I read you don't want seafood, but consider Shrimp & Grits... While the shrimp is the key ingredient in the title....the dish is really about bacon, cheese, grits, vegetables and hot sauce. If you want my personal recipe/adaptation, PM me and I'll type it out from memory tomorrow.

You can also go all out and skip a traditional meal and do all appetizers. I used to hit asian markets for gyoza wrappers and make up Pot stickers. It's basically pork, onion, cabbage, and ginger...about a teaspoon of filling for each dumpling... I make them in advance and put them on a wax paper in the freezer....once they freeze, I wrap them up and store them in the freezer... It takes just 10 minutes to cook batches of them in a skillet with oil and a cup or so of water.

I once did a party with Pot Stickers, Homemade sushi, and hand made, wood-grilled pizza....pair with the right wine list and maybe add some pork bbq mini sandwiches (King Hawaiian sweet rolls & light sauce) You could make everyone happy...

 

[T_Yamamoto]

ATOT, I am disappoint. Four whole pages, and no one mentioned hookers and blow. Tsk tsk.

That's for dessert.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I asked him about a pro and he said that was a non starter. I have no idea how he's going to do any of this. Unless I am mistaken he isn't going with what he knows, but doesn't want to do sous vide, as if that had nearly a tenth of the uncertainty of anything else he could try.

For one, I am not a complete noob in the kitchen. I can follow a recipe and have a good result on the first try.

Not saying that cooking is easy. But even the best cooks are not Michelangelo reincarnated as a chef, not matter what they might think of themselves. Simply put, most cooking isn't that hard.

Second, I will be prepping most of the entre and sides in advance, so that all that needs is to heat/cook the stuff before the guests arrive. Its called planning.

Third, I do not want to sous vide because while it might produce the most fucking orgasmic meat on earth, I have zero experience with it. A new recipe I can handle. A new recipe with a new piece of cooking equipment . . . who knows what will happen. I've BBQ'd pork shoulders since before I can remember, and I still messed up a couple roasts when I first switched to a weber smokey mountain cooker. There is a learning curve with cooking equipment . . . one I would rather not go through when trying to entertain.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Anyway you also seem to want to avoid anything that's new, which is understandable when cooking for guests.

That brings me back to my original point - you gotta just make what you normally feel comfortable with or is easy to make, except that you go with some extra quality ingredients than you normally use.

You make a good point. FWIW, my wife really wants me to do the chicken parm recipe. Guaranteed success, I can plate it well, and most everyone likes chicken parm. I don't mess around with ingredients with that either. All fresh herbs, including garlic I grew and dried myself. Sauce made from scratch. Whole milk fresh mozzarella. Aged parmesan. Damn I am making myself hungry just thinking about it.

 

[lupi]

Roasted rack of lamb should go good for the centerpiece item.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I asked him about a pro and he said that was a non starter. I have no idea how he's going to do any of this. Unless I am mistaken he isn't going with what he knows, but doesn't want to do sous vide, as if that had nearly a tenth of the uncertainty of anything else he could try.

I can understand why someone who'd never done sous vide before wouldn't want to try it first time at a dinner party with the wealthy and (somewhat) influential.

To be fair, you're right about the uncertainty.

 

[Howard]

Third, I do not want to sous vide because while it might produce the most fucking orgasmic meat on earth, I have zero experience with it. A new recipe I can handle. A new recipe with a new piece of cooking equipment . . . who knows what will happen. I've BBQ'd pork shoulders since before I can remember, and I still messed up a couple roasts when I first switched to a weber smokey mountain cooker. There is a learning curve with cooking equipment . . . one I would rather not go through when trying to entertain.

So practice NOW. It doesn't cost you much beyond the cost of the initial outlay.

Besides, you can do much more than just meat, with sous vide. I made a very nice vichyssoise from the Modernist Cuisine at Home book which involves pureeing SV'ed potatoes and mixing in SV'ed leek juice. Extremely impressive when served as a soup shooter at the beginning of the course. This, and the Beef Short Rib with Red Wine Glaze and Pomme Puree from the same book, would not be out of place in an very upscale restaurant, even Michelin-starred, depending on presentation.