Ok, so...
We are swiftly heading to our second major event at our new off site function facility. If you are a true fan of my blog, you remember my last post in which I explained the new facility. If not, then for godsake go back one post and catch up!
The first wine dinner that we held at in the "Tuscan Room" was a tremendous success. And yes, I would tell the truth if it was a disaster. It was the furthest thing from a catastrophe. It was absolutely amazing.
135 of our closest loyal friends and some family descended on LaSalle Hall (where the Tuscan room is located) eagerly awaiting the maiden voyage of the facility. A 5 course typically Tuscan meal was served with a different wine that complimented the dish. I am told that everyone loved the food. It may sound funny saying it that way but the truth is that when I am buried in the thick of it...and 540 plates of food is THICK...when I am buried like that I sometimes let my insecurity get the best of me and I start to question whether or not I am actually succeeding in the endeavour.
So whereas the night was executed smoothly, anxiety washed over me in consecutive waves every time a course was completed. Right before dessert service, I presented myself in front of the crowd, an image of a firing squad floating in the back of my brain. But when my name was announced the most gracious and heartwarming round of applause filled the room. I expressed my immense gratitude both to my team in the kitchen and to the guests and then did my best to go table to table and get as much face to face feedback as I could. I could not have hoped for better reactions. That's not to say that everything was perfect. When you are feeding 130 people there will always be bumps, but overall the compliments that we received for the flavors and presentation brought a smile to my face that was still there when I woke up the next morning.
So...
Let's do it again!! was the phrase I could not wait to tell my team. Not wanting to cause overkill, we decided to wait 3 months. Fall, in my opinion, is the GREATEST season for food. I start formulating Autumn dishes at the beginning of Summer. The herbs, the squashes, the root vegetables, the slow braised meats, the grains, the dried fruits...these are among my most inspiring ingredients.
In trying to pick a date for the next dinner we realized that the middle of October was when then Chamber of commerce holds their annual Harvest festival on the Sturbridge Common. It just made sense to pair up with the Chamber and make our next dinner a Harvest Dinner rather than a wine dinner. Don't get me wrong...there WILL be wine, with every course! But the theme of the night is Autumn Harvest food.
Many have heard the phrase "Farm to Table" in the culinary world. This basically means that the Chef sources ingredients from local farms and producers. It can be a somewhat difficult and expensive process given the geography of any given restaurant. My goal for this Harvest dinner was to source at least 80% of the ingredients from local, AND organic producers. I am excited to announce that I hit about 90%!!!
A challenge to be sure, but those who know me best know that I thrive on difficult situations.
So we are featuring not only local fruits and vegetables, but the meats and the cheeses are local and organic as well.
The menu is fairy uncomplicated. Hearty fall season comfort food with southern Italian roots.
A salad of baby arrugula, apples, marcona almonds and goat cheese fritters presented in a roasted acorn squash wedge
Handmade sugar pumpkin gnocchi simmered in sage cream with crumbled homemade sausage
Stout braised grass fed beef short ribs over sweet potato polenta finished with glazed root vegetables
And for dessert, a Rustic apple crostata accented with rosemary caramel sauce and accompanied by aged Grafton cheddar cheese.
If this sounds at all enticing to you then have no fear, we are not yet sold out for this particular event, as of the writing of this blog post there are 30 available seats. If you would like to reserve spots all you have to do is send an email to Erica Foley. erica4rovezzis@gmail.com
The date for the dinner is Saturday October 20th at 6 pm. The location is the new Tuscan room at LaSalle hall. Erica can answer any questions you may have or you can check out some info on my website www.rovezzis.com .
I expect that my confidence will get battered around during this dinner just as the last one. This insecurity is what gives me my edge to constantly improve and do better at everything I take on.
So please...come challenge me! Come to this Harvest dinner and experience what our local farmers have to offer every season.
Ciao
Friday, October 12, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Yes, I realize that it has been THREE years since my last blog post....I could come up with some elaborate story/reason for this, but the truth is, I haven't felt like there was anything interesting enough to capture any ones attention. And even now, as I am about to describe my first ever trip to Italy, I worry that it will just be viewed as another boring travelogue filled with boring details about a boring place that most folks have not yet gotten a chance to visit.
But, In about a week my team and I are presenting a five course wine dinner at our new off site function venue for the purposes of announcing and celebrating, well, our new off site function venue! The event hall consists of 2 function rooms, the smaller of which has been unofficially dubbed the "TUSCAN ROOM"...can you see where this is going? My hope was that the trip to Tuscany would provide me with spark to create the menu for the wine dinner. More than inspiration, what I received from my trip was a sincerely humbling education.
But, like I said. I fear that my blog posts won't be interesting. And describing an overseas trip has the potential for banality.
So,
To prevent this from happening, I will NOT fill this post with over descriptive images of The Italian countryside. the vineyard covered hillsides of Tuscany dotted with cement structures colored with rusty oranges, yellows and browns, the overcrowded port towns lined with buildings layered so close together it almost looks as if they were smashed together and then squeezed inward to make room for more at the ends. The endless maze of narrow streets that wind haphazardly through the ancient towns of Lucca, Bulgheri and Volterra. The last one by the way is where they filmed a portion of one of the TWILIGHT movies...Apparently, that's where the head vampires are stationed.
Anyways...
All of that stuff was absolutely wonderful, and beautiful, and interesting to see, but all of it pales in comparison to the education I gained while in this beautiful place. An education based solely on my desire to finally experience the cuisine of my heritage. A cuisine that I have been fumbling through for most of my culinary life. I am known as an Italian Chef. I have been creating dishes in my own kitchen for 12 years. 10 years prior to that I spent my time gaining knowledge and experience through working with different chefs with different styles. And although the bulk of my knowledge came from an Italian chef who was born in Italy, everything I learned was a sort of mixture of Italian and nouvelle American cuisine. Every dish had an added "flair" to it. Extra components and fancy garnishes that became a trademark for how younger Chef's could out do their competitors.
Too much stuff. That's the only way I can describe it. Dishes just had too much stuff on them.
This was the most important thing that I learned while in Tuscany. That when you are composing a dish. Don't put any ingredients in it that don't belong. I am going to say it again. DON'T PUT ANY INGREDIENTS IN THE DISH THAT DON'T BELONG. To put it differently, do not add components to dish just because you're afraid that the dish is too simple. Young Chef's today are constantly adding ingredients because they think that the dish needs color or texture or height. Allot of times what ends up happening is the extra "stuff" starts to detract from the original idea. And what you end up with is an over complicated mash of flavors that confuse the palette.
Oh, and I was one of those Chef's. I have spent my share of nights making sure my dishes had enough color and artistic value. Unfortunately none of that stuff matters when flavor is lacking. So the lesson was one that we have all heard through the years. The k.i.s.s. method. Keep it simple stupid. Although I think the last "s" has been eliminated due to political correctness.
Simplicity is the key. I had heard this before going to Italy. That Italian Chef I mentioned tried to instill the rule of simplicity in me but I was too young and cocky to hear it. I wanted to show off.
So there I was, having lunch in a small trattoria in Bulgheri. Sampling a selection of cured meats and olives. Simply presented on a white plate. No garnish, no fancy wild greens to color the plate. Just the meats and the olives, oh, and some house made crusty bread. The antipasti was followed by a handmade ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta cheese in a light cream sauce. It was obvious that the ravioli was made earlier that day, and the person who made them was passionate about the process. It was the perfect balance of spinach and cheese. it was the perfect consistency to the sauce. It was the perfect thickness of the pasta that enveloped the filling. It was the perfect lunch.
In Santa Margherita, near Genoa, every meal for two days included a pasta dish with pesto genovese, which is the basil pesto that we all know. But it's not the pesto we all know. It is the worlds greatest pesto. The reason is that Genoa is the birthplace of pesto. There are subtle differences that make the pesto much more vibrant and remarkable. Unlike the forest green textured pesto we make here, the stuff ate everyday was almost fluorescent! It was pureed smooth and coated the pasta so evenly, every bite was as consistent as the first. One of the most classic presentations consists of a pasta tossed with green beans, diced potatoes and pesto. That's it. Three ingredients added to pasta. A simple dish of greens and whites. No tomatoes added for color. No fried leeks piled on top for height. Just green beans, potatoes and pesto. Nothing else is needed. It was a perfect example of the simplicity rule.
The dish impacted me so hard, I decided to make it the 3rd course for the wine dinner. It will consist of those three ingredients, but make no mistake, my goal is to put my signature on it so that should you encounter this dish again, you will have a point of reference to compare it too.
The other 4 courses , although not exact replicas of dishes from my trip, have all been designed from my new found education. A salad of local organic peaches, imported proscuitto and goat cheese, a typically Tuscan roast pork known as a porchetta, an intensely rich dense dark chocolate torte and of course handmade biscotti with coffee. All of these simply prepared with respect for the ingredients allowing the flavor to be the most important component rather than worrying about composing dishes that are fashionable or trendy.
This blog post is the first in a series about my trip to Italy. It would be impossible to express the experience in one post. Three years ago, when I created this blog, it was more about self indulgence than anything else. But now I feel that I have something important to share. Important enough to start writing again after three years Whenever I am asked how the trip was, my immediate response has been, "there are no words!" Clearly this is not true.
If anything there is the potential for too many words.
But, In about a week my team and I are presenting a five course wine dinner at our new off site function venue for the purposes of announcing and celebrating, well, our new off site function venue! The event hall consists of 2 function rooms, the smaller of which has been unofficially dubbed the "TUSCAN ROOM"...can you see where this is going? My hope was that the trip to Tuscany would provide me with spark to create the menu for the wine dinner. More than inspiration, what I received from my trip was a sincerely humbling education.
But, like I said. I fear that my blog posts won't be interesting. And describing an overseas trip has the potential for banality.
So,
To prevent this from happening, I will NOT fill this post with over descriptive images of The Italian countryside. the vineyard covered hillsides of Tuscany dotted with cement structures colored with rusty oranges, yellows and browns, the overcrowded port towns lined with buildings layered so close together it almost looks as if they were smashed together and then squeezed inward to make room for more at the ends. The endless maze of narrow streets that wind haphazardly through the ancient towns of Lucca, Bulgheri and Volterra. The last one by the way is where they filmed a portion of one of the TWILIGHT movies...Apparently, that's where the head vampires are stationed.
Anyways...
All of that stuff was absolutely wonderful, and beautiful, and interesting to see, but all of it pales in comparison to the education I gained while in this beautiful place. An education based solely on my desire to finally experience the cuisine of my heritage. A cuisine that I have been fumbling through for most of my culinary life. I am known as an Italian Chef. I have been creating dishes in my own kitchen for 12 years. 10 years prior to that I spent my time gaining knowledge and experience through working with different chefs with different styles. And although the bulk of my knowledge came from an Italian chef who was born in Italy, everything I learned was a sort of mixture of Italian and nouvelle American cuisine. Every dish had an added "flair" to it. Extra components and fancy garnishes that became a trademark for how younger Chef's could out do their competitors.
Too much stuff. That's the only way I can describe it. Dishes just had too much stuff on them.
This was the most important thing that I learned while in Tuscany. That when you are composing a dish. Don't put any ingredients in it that don't belong. I am going to say it again. DON'T PUT ANY INGREDIENTS IN THE DISH THAT DON'T BELONG. To put it differently, do not add components to dish just because you're afraid that the dish is too simple. Young Chef's today are constantly adding ingredients because they think that the dish needs color or texture or height. Allot of times what ends up happening is the extra "stuff" starts to detract from the original idea. And what you end up with is an over complicated mash of flavors that confuse the palette.
Oh, and I was one of those Chef's. I have spent my share of nights making sure my dishes had enough color and artistic value. Unfortunately none of that stuff matters when flavor is lacking. So the lesson was one that we have all heard through the years. The k.i.s.s. method. Keep it simple stupid. Although I think the last "s" has been eliminated due to political correctness.
Simplicity is the key. I had heard this before going to Italy. That Italian Chef I mentioned tried to instill the rule of simplicity in me but I was too young and cocky to hear it. I wanted to show off.
So there I was, having lunch in a small trattoria in Bulgheri. Sampling a selection of cured meats and olives. Simply presented on a white plate. No garnish, no fancy wild greens to color the plate. Just the meats and the olives, oh, and some house made crusty bread. The antipasti was followed by a handmade ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta cheese in a light cream sauce. It was obvious that the ravioli was made earlier that day, and the person who made them was passionate about the process. It was the perfect balance of spinach and cheese. it was the perfect consistency to the sauce. It was the perfect thickness of the pasta that enveloped the filling. It was the perfect lunch.
In Santa Margherita, near Genoa, every meal for two days included a pasta dish with pesto genovese, which is the basil pesto that we all know. But it's not the pesto we all know. It is the worlds greatest pesto. The reason is that Genoa is the birthplace of pesto. There are subtle differences that make the pesto much more vibrant and remarkable. Unlike the forest green textured pesto we make here, the stuff ate everyday was almost fluorescent! It was pureed smooth and coated the pasta so evenly, every bite was as consistent as the first. One of the most classic presentations consists of a pasta tossed with green beans, diced potatoes and pesto. That's it. Three ingredients added to pasta. A simple dish of greens and whites. No tomatoes added for color. No fried leeks piled on top for height. Just green beans, potatoes and pesto. Nothing else is needed. It was a perfect example of the simplicity rule.
The dish impacted me so hard, I decided to make it the 3rd course for the wine dinner. It will consist of those three ingredients, but make no mistake, my goal is to put my signature on it so that should you encounter this dish again, you will have a point of reference to compare it too.
The other 4 courses , although not exact replicas of dishes from my trip, have all been designed from my new found education. A salad of local organic peaches, imported proscuitto and goat cheese, a typically Tuscan roast pork known as a porchetta, an intensely rich dense dark chocolate torte and of course handmade biscotti with coffee. All of these simply prepared with respect for the ingredients allowing the flavor to be the most important component rather than worrying about composing dishes that are fashionable or trendy.
This blog post is the first in a series about my trip to Italy. It would be impossible to express the experience in one post. Three years ago, when I created this blog, it was more about self indulgence than anything else. But now I feel that I have something important to share. Important enough to start writing again after three years Whenever I am asked how the trip was, my immediate response has been, "there are no words!" Clearly this is not true.
If anything there is the potential for too many words.
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