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    Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party: The Surgeon in the Kitchen
    Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party: The Surgeon in the Kitchen
    Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party: The Surgeon in the Kitchen
    Ebook328 pages1 hour

    Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party: The Surgeon in the Kitchen

    By Adam Frosh

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever wanted to dine at or host a dinner party where you experience such fine food and wine and such an atmosphere of elegance that it would rival a scene from a period drama?

    There are many books available that can help you make some fabulous meals. What makes this book special is how it combines stunning recipes, menu planning, advice on wine pairings, a step-by-step guide to creating beautiful table displays, and all the key ingredients that will help create a special blend of elegance and opulence. This surgeons magical formula will ensure you will be confident to host a truly awe-inspiring occasion that will not fail to impress your guests.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris UK
    Release dateJan 14, 2015
    ISBN9781499087970
    Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party: The Surgeon in the Kitchen
    Author

    Adam Frosh

    Adam Frosh was born in London, England, and works as a consultant ENT surgeon in Hertfordshire. He is married with two children. He is passionate about fine food, fine wines, and entertaining and is often to be found perfecting new recipes to share with friends and family. He likes to fuse traditional high-quality dining etiquette with an appreciation of modern cookery techniques and styles. The combination of his eye to detail and his warm personality ensures that the dinner parties he hosts at his Hertfordshire home provide a sense of occasion, a touch of decadence, and, above all, an enjoyable evening in great company

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      Book preview

      Hosting an Elegant Dinner Party - Adam Frosh

      Copyright © 2015 by Adam Frosh. 521004

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014913196

      ISBN: Softcover       978-1-4990-8798-7

      ISBN: Hardcover       978-1-4990-8799-4

      ISBN: Ebook              978-1-4990-8797-0

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Rev. date: 01/05/2015

      Xlibris

      0-800-056-3182

      www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

      Adam Frosh gives a confidence boost for anyone who wishes to host a dinner party that has a professional and formal feel. His training in surgery provides the attention to detail and planning that makes this book stand out. He focuses our attention not only on the excellence of the quality of the cuisine but how a stunning dinner party can be achieved through careful planning. The reader will see how highly impressive results can be achieved without the need to divert precious time from their guests to prepare food in the kitchen. Adam Frosh not only brings dining excellence to the home but makes the hosting of such an event a great joy.

      Dedication

      For my lovely family

      SITK_Mark_H-16.tif

      Acknowledgements

      Firstly, a big thank you to my parents who have been a huge inspiration for me to begin this work and an inspiration in my life in general. I wish to give my thanks to Christopher Archambault (of Archambault Culinary Services) for food styling and photography and also to Mark Hallam (of Big Sounds Photography). Thank you to Steve O'Dwyer from Brookfield Farm Butchery, Stevenage, who has been my source of creative butchery by helping me to develop the filet de veau chirurgien, which we believe to be an entirely novel cut. Thank you also to all my friends and family with special thanks to my wife Rachel who has been invaluable as a guinea pig for my various culinary experimentations. I also thank my children with their singular palates. You have all scrutinised my recipes well and have given me important feedback to help make this book a reality.

      Contents

      From Easy to Awe-Inspiring

      Why Offer Elegant Dining?

      Achieving the Elegant Effect

      The Invitation

      Organisation is the Key – Ensure Maximal Time with Your Guests

      The Dinner Table

      Arranging the Table

      The Table Surface

      The Centrepiece

      The Candlestick/Candelabra

      The Place Setting

      The Cutlery

      Place setting arrangement

      The Glassware

      • Water

      • Red Wine

      • White Wine

      • Sherry

      • Brandy Goblets

      Napkins

      Plates and Serving Platters

      Place Cards

      Creating the Look on a Budget

      Welcoming Your Guests

      Cocktail Hour

      Vodka Martini

      Hanky-Panky

      Sidecar

      Canapés and Predinner Snacks

      Toasts and Speeches

      The Wine

      The Menus

      Menu 1 – Une Bouchée d’Agneau

      Menu 2 – Un Allumeuse de Canard

      Menu 3 – Un Goût de Porc

      Menu 4 – Un Morceau de Boeuf

      Menu 5 – Un Delice de Veau

      The Cheeses

      Accompaniments for the Cheeses

      Appendix

      Big-Pot Blanching

      Crisping fish fillets

      Mayonnaise

      Preparing the Filet de Veau Chirurgien Cut

      The Quenelle

      Stocks

      • Stock vegetables

      • Lamb stock

      • Veal/beef stock

      • Chicken stock

      • Fish stock

      Sauces for Meat Dishes

      Sauce vegetables

      • Duck jus

      • Pork jus

      • Lamb jus

      • Beef jus

      • Sauce espagnole

      Addendum

      My story

      Surgery and Dinner Parties

      From Easy to Awe-Inspiring

      I have intended this book to meet a range of needs for those who want to create a great dish, for those who want a to be able to produce a delicious two or three course meal and for those who want to wow their guests with a truly awe-inspiring seven-course dining experience complemented by the perfect wine choices.

      Creating great results in cookery and entertaining takes time and practise. At a most basic level, the recipes described here can be prepared on an individual basis. As the reader becomes more confident with the recipes, they can prepare two or three courses perhaps for the family or as an informal dinner party for guests. I strongly recommend the reader has practised the recipes well before contemplating entertaining ten people for a seven-course sit-down banquet. Once sufficient confidence has been reached, however, the reader will be able to create dining experience with the finest of dishes and an ambience to match any period drama.

      I have constructed the dishes in the menus in a way that creates a good variety of food experiences throughout the meal while avoiding flavour repetition. The menus have been themed so as to build up to the main course as the crowning piece in the meal. There is however, nothing to stop the reader swapping dishes from other menus.

      31237.jpg

      The recipes use ingredients that are readily available in most local shops and supermarkets. Furthermore, all the ingredients are largely available all year round. I have deliberately avoided creating fully seasonal menus for this reason, instead theming the menus according to the main course meat. There are some dishes however, such as the crab and melon gazpacho that will be most appreciated on hot sunny days.

      Why Offer Elegant Dining?

      Just about everyone has a desire to feel special. We can easily appreciate and recognise when an effort is being made for us whether we are offered a lovingly prepared bowl of soup or the more formal gesture of the organised dinner party. The style of a dinner party could range from the most casual to the more formalised of settings. The modern age has seen a shift generally away from the social rules of the Georgian and Victorian eras with consequent relaxation of etiquettes in manners and dress codes. It is perhaps this drift from convention, which has created a resurgence in interest in texts such as Noblesse Oblige, or Judith Martin’s Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. We marvel at the stunningly produced televised period dramas and movies. How many of us have not imagined ourselves dressed in the period style, sitting at those grand dinner tables adorned with full silver service as we are waited upon by an attentive footman in livery? Of course, such functions were always the preserve of the society elite. However, our modern-day standard of living has improved to such an extent that fine food at least is now open to a much wider spread of people in the many excellent restaurants around the world. Many of these restaurants serve dishes to such a high standard that they would have astounded those very elite classes portrayed in television period dramas.

      Elegant dining is without doubt a fun experience. It is both a privilege and a joy to entertain our guests. The trick for the host is to provide the necessary attention to detail to the party and food that convey to the guests a feeling of effortless but special hospitality. This book is not designed to be a reference for generation of everyday meals. It must be remembered that fine dining is for the special occasion. It is essential that while entertaining at their own dinner party, the host feels at ease and fully in control and that they themselves are able to enjoy the great occasion.

      12.tif

      Achieving the Elegant Effect

      • Dress codes will enhance the experience and feeling of elegance in the dining experience

      • Black tie for evening and lounge suits for daytime functions

      • Plan the party well in advance

      • Good advance preparation will ensure the host spends maximal time with their guests

      28075.jpg

      Achieving the elegant effect will not be easy unless you can pull together the vital components of good food, timing, organisation, style and an overall attention to detail. While individual components may not even be consciously noticed, when brought together, they will not fail to produce an impressive overall effect.

      It is important that the guests should know that the party is going to be a rather special one, particularly as this will encourage them to make an effort with the dress code. While I am all for the freedoms and liberal values, which chime with the modern age, there is something very special and exciting when the guests are dressed for the dinner party. This will inevitably add to the overall sense of fun, luxury and elegant atmosphere of the dinner. While we may tend to think of luxury within the dinner setting generally confined to restaurants and special functions, dressing well for any event invariably creates a feeling of finesse and luxury. There is often a certain palpable energy we sense when we attend a wedding, dinner party, or any form of formalised gathering; the atmosphere is magnified by the injection of a certain sense of special occasion.

      While white tie for men and bouffant gown for women represent the most formal evening dress code in western fashion, such formalities are now the reserve of formal banquets and state ceremonies¹. Black tie for evening and lounge suits for morning/daytime wear are the slightly less formal counterparts and have the advantage in that many men will own or be able to acquire them fairly easily. The counterparts for women are the evening gown, which can be tea length (just above the ankle) or ballerina length (almost touching the ankle) and the cocktail dress² which are less formal and tend to be at a shorter length between the mid thigh and knee.

      While most of us do not live in a stately home, the feeling of elegance at the dinner party can be emulated well by paying certain attentions to detail. First of all, the dinner table should be set correctly and aesthetically with place settings. Ensure there is enough seating available if you have a reception room. The guests should be received warmly by the host who ensures they are relieved of their coats for safekeeping as they are welcomed. Offer the guests a welcome drink and usher them to the reception area. The arrangement of dinner table itself and the welcome drinks are

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