What do you get when you have 12 cooks create for 10 guests? One Epic Dinner (Part II). It took about 50 emails, 3 months, to plan 1 night in 1 kitchen but let me tell you right now: it was well worth it and I’ll do it again very soon.

Our last epic dinner was on a much smaller scale. It was more of an experiment and an excuse to hang out with friends and eat more extravagantly than usual. So naturally when the idea of doing another one came up we had to make it bigger and bolder than before. So we auctioned off this dinner at a missions fundraiser for church and sold it for quite a large sum of money.

The funny thing about coordinating something this massive and epic is that the planning and execution requires an exponentially greater effort per dish you add. The elements of prep, mise en place, kitchen space, service and attentiveness to guests all require precise scheduling to ensure a smooth dining experience. Not surprisingly, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of hustle and bustle required to keep a multi-course meal running but the experience was invaluable and the next time it can only get better. So thinking about hitting up a restaurant that serves a 20+ course tasting? Appreciate the artistry and dexterity required to pull that off because it’s not easy – not by a long shot.

All the cooks came up with exceptionally creative and tasty dishes. The expenses came out of their own pockets and we even had practice runs to ensure that our dishes came out great on the night of Epic Dinner. I can probably speak for everyone when I say that we learned quite a bit from this experience. Anyway, without further adieu I present to you the dishes. Bon Appetit!

 

Photo Credit: Leon Shen

This post is tagged berries, cheese, chocolate, cornets, dinner, epic, garlic, goat cheese tart, macaroni, mascarpone sorbet, mussels, panna cotta, party, pea soup, plating, pork belly, sabayon, salmon, sea bass, souffle, tartare, tuna