For a few years now, we’ve had the honour of taking our show on the road up to Thirty Bench Wine Makers to cook lunch for their wine club members. This past Sunday, they took their show on the road come visit us!
Now, cooking on our home turf is a little easier logistically, so we thought we’d really whip it up and do some things that are just not possible offsite.
Our oven space allowed us to pull off some simple but delicious 5 ingredient tarte tatins. Sugar, butter, cream, puff pastry, and plums (literally picked 2 hours before service) paired with the 2007 Small Lot Riesling Icewine…..Slam Dunk! Our smoker and the legendary ‘Frac-o-lator’ provided authentic Southern (Ontario, thet is) Barbequed chicken and ribs. No schlepping, no hot-box!!
However earthlings, the event was not without it’s hurdles. For instance we chose a sweet corn risotto to showcase not only our skills, but the perfectly balanced small lot Chardonnay. Great idea at the time, considering most of our Thirty Bench lunches are for 30 or so guests. Now, you may have heard me say things like “never do risotto for more than 20 people” or more specifically “you’re crazy to do risotto for more than 20 people” but I figured – home turf, no problem.
Problem.
Confirmed numbers for this lunch……60.
What now smart-ass? That was the question I was considering while lying in bed Saturday at about 2 a.m. Then it came to me. The beauty of surrounding yourself with good people is that you can count on skills and consistency. Now if Isa DiIorio, yours truly, and Pit Boss Mike McColl have each made, say, 500 risottos, at least 200 of them were at Inn On The Twenty. We all attended the “Michael Olson Risotto Academy” back in the day.
Solution.
Three chefs, three pots, three boxes of Scotti arborio, three spoons, and a three minute stagger. I knew that we would end up with three perfect batches of sweet corn and chanterelle risotto. If not identical, equally delicious and properly cooked at that ultra thin line where too crunchy meets too mushy!
It should also be said that it takes a crack team of support staff to allow three chefs to take twenty minutes out from lunch to stir three pots of risotto, so thanks to Rachel, Kristin, Krista, Christine, and our fearless leader Nicolette Novak (all of whom were a little bleary-eyed from our wedding the night previous, but that’s another blog!).
A lunch to be proud of.
Chow!