As I was cleaning up some files on the desktop computer yesterday, I came across the word document: "Banquet Menu Ideas." Gleefully I opened the file...and there it was: a list of menu ideas compiled around 6 or 7 years ago.
"Aw, crap!" I thought to myself. In the process of condensing files from 4 computers to 1 over the summer this scenario had presented itself before.
It usually plays out thusly:
1) Find a "Menu" file.
2) Get extremely hopeful that there is an idea worthy of Michelin stars contained within the file.
3) Double-click to open the file, and while Word is opening I am awash in nostalgia and hope.
4) File opens. I am confronted by the past. And NOT in the "WOW! Great to see you," way.
5) Hope gives way to embarrassment and despair.
6) Close file and save...just to remind myself of what an incompetent I was, and what NOT to do in the future.
7) Weep quietly, while telling myself that "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough..."
Okay...so that may be a slight exaggeration, (well, at least some of it may be). BUT...this time I was pleasantly surprised by the cohesion of the menu and that the menu items themselves have actually stood the test of time, (that 7 years provides). It was, and still is, a good collection of ideas.
It was actually neat to read the 10 pages of the menu and realize that the ideas were still viable...but the biggest realization was how I had changed as a cook, philosophically. I can picture how I would have prepared and presented these items 5 years ago...and then I thought about how I would prepare and present them now.
Ah, the difference time will make. I was a good cook then...now I can make it soignee. Things as simple as I would use a round cutter to "punch-out" perfect rounds of torchon au foie gras now, whereas I would have just sliced the torchon in the past. Cranberry compote would have been just as at home in a can on Thanksgiving as it would have been on a canape. Now it would consist of a single cranberry, or two on the canape...very soignee!
No comments:
Post a Comment