My First Holiday Gig

I
‘ve cooked for small groups, family and friends before, as well as smoking over 800 lbs of pork in one weekend for a festival, but yesterday saw my first experience doing an office lunch for 30 people.

My customer decided on the number of people, and I presented him with options for the menu.  The items he chose were:

• Brisket – This is just a no brainer… It’s good stuff!
• Turkey – Smoked, but traditional for the holidays.  I brined it in coffee and molasses.
• Tomato Pie – Every time I have this, I remember just how good it is!
• Barbecued Beans – Not too dry, not too wet, some with and some without pulled pork added.
• Veggie Lasagna – Four cheeses, portabellas, spinach and bechamel sauce.  In case anyone is vegetarian (whatever that means… it’s not in vocabulary!)
• Cole Slaw – Simple and simply good!

I also had on hand some Javacue sauce, in case anyone wanted it.  I don’t use sauce on my brisket, but I wanted to be sure they had some good sauce if they wanted it.

In addition to providing the meal, I also made desserts, with the help of my wife.  The desserts were:

• The Best Chocolate Chunk Cookies in the World – It’s true!
• Apple Pie – A classic dessert that’s tough to top!
• Heathbar Cheesecake – Gooey, crunchy, cheesecakey all at the same time.
• Tiramisu Cheesecake – A little cheesecake, a little tiramisu, a lot good!

My teammate, Mark, brought down all the hot stuff in the morning, and we got in the room we were serving in with about 40 minutes to set up.  We got it all done, and it was ready for the first people coming in.

Everything went over really well.  It’s a real pleasure watching people that have never had your food enjoy what you made.  People went back for multiple servings of brisket and turkey, and, once they tried the tomato pie, most had more of that, too.  The veggie lasagna was a big hit, too.

The desserts went over great, too.  The cookies were gone in no time, and the heathbar cheesecake went quickly.  The apple pie and tiramisu cheesecake weren’t too far behind.  I actually overheard someone say the cookies were the best they’d ever had, and I had several people ask about buying cheesecakes.

It was a great day, and just fun to see everyone enjoy their meal.  It was a lot of work, but we learned a lot doing it, too.  It’s different doing the whole shebang vs. just cooking meat, but the effort was well worth it.  In the end, I have a client that felt like he got good value, and a bunch of people that now know about our food.

I was so busy I didn’t get a lot of photos, but here are some of the whole thing all set up: