Every year I host a dinner party for my law firm as a recruiting event for our summer associates. I first started doing this about 10 years, and it’s become an annual tradition. The concept of the party is to make it interactive, to get the guests cooking, plating and serving. I come up with a multi-course menu of Italian dishes (or at least Italian-inspired dishes) and pair each dish with an Italian wine. I buy all the food, prep it, do some preliminary cooking that might be needed, and then invite the guests to help with the final cooking and assembly. I’ve had them make ravioli, stuff arancini and stir risotto. They’ve made pizza, shaved truffles, and whipped cream. It’s turned out to be a ton of fun, because a summer clerk may end up working on a dish with the firm’s managing partner. I’m always surprised by who really wants to get their hands dirty in the kitchen.
Anyhow, I made the brilliant decision to host this year’s party on Saturday, just a week after I returned from a 2-week trip from Alaska — a week of catching up on the work that came in while I was gone. I just came up with the menu concept on Tuesday, and then bought the wines yesterday. I made it pretty simple on myself, as the two main courses involved dishes prepared in the oven. For a crowd of 30, that’s very helpful. Almost as helpful as renting all the dishes needed for these dinners.
The event is two days away, and I thought I’d share my menu with y’all (after the break). You’ll see that I kind of took the notion of specifying the origin of the ingredients a bit too far, as a sort of insider foodie joke. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Varmint 
