SMALL DINNER PARTIES IN YOUR HOME

I will create a menu for you and prepare it in your home for your small dinner parties (10-12 people work best). Most of the prep is done in my kitchen and I arrive to cook & prepare your table 4 hours ahead of the scheduled dinner party. Very innovative styles of menus are available depending on the event you wish to celebrate. I strive to emphasize local, seasonal and fresh entrees and prepare them in a way that is unique that you will not normally find around town. Most of the sauces, condiments, marinades are made in-house. Wine Recommendations are also available. Choose from the following menus below :

TAPAS SMALL PLATES

Tapa(s)  is native to southern Spain in the Andalucia region and dates back to the 16th century. It means lid or cover and are small plate appetizers served hot or cold with a glass of sherry or draught beer or Spanish wine. Seville is famous for their tapas bars in this region. In northern Spain in the Basque region around San Sebastian, this small plates style of eating is called Pintxos (small portions) and encompass a wide variety of appetizers served to be consumed in one evening in tapas or pintxos bars. A distinction that is made between the two names is that Tapas at one point in time was free with your glass of wine and pintxos were always something that you had to pay for. If you increase the quantity of tapas it would be then thought of as dinner and thus called “Raciones”.

A Tapas menu can incorporate several different cultural influences and ingredients within one menu. Tapas has been popularized in many different countries beside Spain and now has an established following throughout the world.

A couple of fun stories about how Tapas evolved is that initially tavern owners used slices of bread or meat placed over the top of the customer’s glass to keep the fruit flies from hovering and then falling into the sweet sherry. Another story is that bar owners used strong cheese and slices of ham to disguise the bad taste of the wine and would place them over the glass when they served the wine. At some point they decided that if they started to give the cheese away the bad wine would then get sold!

Contemporary Tapas Bars encourage conversation and conviviality because diners going for Tapas are not formally sitting down but standing and moving about while drinking and eating with their glasses of wine and small plate in hand usually with the plate on top of their glass.

Tapas these days can get quite sophisticated although it is not a requirement for good Tapas. Using small plates to showcase many different items is a great way to keep the people at the party or bar moving. It is a style of eating. In Spain doing an evening of Tapas, will often involve not only moving about the Tapas Bar itself with a small plate and drink in hand but you will often move around town to different establishments having a couple of Tapas and a glass of wine at each bar ~ ending perhaps with a breakfast Tapas menu although it is rare that breakfast tapas are offered. It appears that each bar perfects a couple of tapas items and people will frequent the bar for their particular favourite specialties.

So if you are wanting a dinner party that has the ambience such as a tapas experience consider the sample Tapas Small Plates Menu on my Menu Design page.

HEART & SOUL HOMEY COMFORT

Do you have those evenings when you need to be soothed and comforted by your food? Have familiarity and warmth? Have your go-to foods that soothed you as a child? You can feel heart & soul homey comfort in your menu instead of challenging your palate with complexities and adventure.  Maybe it’s Friday night and it may be the time when you need food with heart and soul. So time to build a fire, ask a few friends over and get cozy! This is the ultimate homey comfort food menu for you and a small group of friends who can enjoy an intimate dinner evening with you. View the Heart & Soul Homey Comfort sample menu on my Menu Design page.

ETHNIC EVENINGS ~ INDIAN KASHMIRI CURRY DINNER

Looking to transport yourself to another city, another continent for a change?  Craving entrees that excite your palate and expand your senses about different cuisines? With the huge spectrum of aromas found in Indian curries maybe you should take a little trip with your friends to Kashmir in Northern India.  This is the ultimate of slow food cuisine and I always take the liberty of adding my inspirations to any cuisine. Aging meat to make a good curry can take up to a week and after the curry is made it is also good to allow the curry to sit again to maximize the marriage of all the delicious aromatics and spices that are used to create this slow food dish. Add the numerous condiments that accompany a good curry and you will be in Kashmir on your way to heaven! If you would like to try a wonderful Indian Curry Dinner with your friends then you might want to check out the Kasmiri Curry Dinner sample menu on my Menu Design page.