When in Rome Part Due

From Luxury to Make-shift.

I accompanied Chef and his 2 ex-sous chefs to an event in Rome where “two world wide known chefs interpret Italian and Turkish cuisine”. So Chef Tassa was clearly the Italian chef of the night and the other half of the menu was by a Turkish chef. The event was held in the financial district of Rome in a large, beautifully decorated room. The first event I did in Rome with chef the kitchen facilities were pristine and top of the line (see blog entry When in Rome). This time around- not so much. The “kitchen” was literally outside covered by several party tents standing in a row. It was equipped with 4 ovens, 2 large burners, 1 gigantic deep fryer, several prep tables, a deep freezer with a piece of plexi-glass as a lid and that’s about it. No sink. Ya that’s right, no sink.

Chef's in the "kitchen"

While doing some last minute prep in the kitchen the head count for the night went down to 200. My task of the day was to portion 200 portions of lamb tartare in ring molds. When service began the head count went down to only 130 people.

The first course had both the Italian and Turkish dishes on the same plate. We served a salt cod and potato crepinette (fried, filled pastry) and a vegetable millefogile (layers of potato, eggplant, zuchinni, red pepper, herbs) and the Turkish chef served a yufka roll (also a fried pastry with white Turkish cheese- similar to feta) and a hot bulgur salad that was dressed with pomegranate and garnished with tomato and green onion.

"Kitchen" from one end..

And from the other end...venue to the right

Masi manning the fryer..

Lovin' the attention..

The main courses went out separately, Italy went first- lamb tartare with chefs infamous onion and mozzarella sauce- like his “lasagna” dish he serves in the restaurant and similar to the one he served at the Gambero Rosso- When in Rome. Sans white truffle this time around. With only 130 guests and all the extra hands in the kitchen service was wonderfully organized and quick. On the Italian side anyways. This Turkish chef really didn’t seem to grasp the urgency of plating over 100 plates in a timely fashion, she thought she could plate every individual plate herself taking about 3 minutes per plate- haha, good joke lady. The chef of this “kitchen” or facility had to take control and with all hands on deck we got all her plates out promptly. She wasn’t very happy about the fact that she lost control over plating her own dish but that’s just not the way a catering event like this works. If we would’ve done it her way, we would STILL be waiting for this course to go out. I finally meet a successful female chef and she is not so bright, thanks a lot! It makes the rest of us look really great, especially in a country where females are already lumped together under the ‘useless’ category.

Hot Bulgur Salad

Dessert also went out on the same plate. We served a variation of the “pre-dessert” that is served at the restaurant. This course was very exciting for me as I have been getting my hands dirty in pastry a lot at the restaurant chef has put his trust in me when it comes to dolce. Also, at the last minute, well when we got to the facility and chef learned of this bulgur wheat he decided to add it to the dessert course. So, we borrowed some bulgur wheat from the Turkish chef and cooked it with sugar to make it ever-so-slightly sweet. This bulgur wheat is larger than I have ever seen it before, I first mistaken it for Israeli couscous it was that big. This was probably the best call chef has made since I got here. I have always enjoyed the flavours of the pre-dessert, they are meant to be, however the dish has always been lacking texture so this made the dish a star. As the sous chef was eating he said “this is genius, perfect, perfect…”

What was our dessert you ask?:

Fresh chestnut gelato – pretty sure my thumbs are still scarred from peeling all those f*cking chestnuts for this- whipped ricotta, roasted almond milk, candied orange zest and FINALLY sweetened bulgur wheat. The gelato is so creamy and not very sweet- you’re welcome chef!- the ricotta cream is half cream and half fresh ricotta with a touch of sugar in a CO2 can in order for it to look whipped, the combo to die for.. with a subtle hit of orange and almond… mmmmmmm and then the bulgur brings the perfect bite and the perfect addition of sugar, it’s like an orgasm in your mouth.

Turkish dessert: Sweet potato that was drenched in simple syrup/thick sugar water, a few slices of this were sprinkled with toasted almond slices and fresh pomegranate seeds, then topped with an additional hit of simple syrup. I only had one bite of this and it was pretty tasty but too sweet for my palate; Not to mention I was WAY too busy eating our Chestnut-Ricotta-ORGASMO-Dessert! I personally think that chef should put the bulgur on the dessert in the restaurant but he didn’t.

I have enjoyed the variations we have had in Rome, the luxury was great but dealing with the cracks in the tents while it poured rain as we plated dessert with dirty hands was fun too.