Let me begin by saying that culinary endeavors are a funny thing. Cooking is so multi-faceted. On one hand, you’re trying to please yourself by perfecting your craft and creating a meal that excites the tastebuds. But on the other hand you’re trying to please others, displaying care, joy, comfort, and happiness through food. Epic Dinner has always been about the latter. There is a distinct joy in serving others with the best that you have to offer and a distinct joy in watching them receive it. This is why we continue to do dinners that take months to plan for and long hours to prepare. In the same token, this is why Epic Dinner II.V (2.5, but more on this number later), is somewhat special. It was done with a special group of people and served to a very special family.

Epic Dinner II.V (2.5)
Why not call it Epic Dinner III (here are the posts for Epic Dinner I and Epic Dinner II)? Well, mainly because we are auctioning off the next iteration of Epic Dinner for our church’s servant auction this month so this project was kind of an “in between” event as a gift for the Pastor of our church (Harvest San Diego) and his family. The entire spectacle took about a month of planning and an entire day of cooking but not surprisingly, it was worth every minute.

Saturday morning of the event was spent traveling to a farmers’ market and specialty grocery stores. Saturday afternoon was spent prepping and rehearsing. Saturday night was spent executing, plating, photographing, serving, and cleaning. We had 9 different staff members not all of them cooks per se but most all of them having some hand in the cooking and serving process. The most important figure of all? The dishwasher. If you are ever planning on doing a big dinner with multiple courses, a dedicated person at the sink and a dedicated person drying and racking dishes are imperative! So a big shout out to our escuelerie (keeper of the dishes).

So without further adieu, I want to present to you the food and pictures from this Epic Dinner.

Canapes

Thomas Keller’s “Bacon and Eggs” from the French Laundry Cookbook

Quail eggs are awesome to work with. They give a great “micro” presentation to any dish you’re serving. This “amuse bouche” is a soft-poached quail egg on warmed in beurre monte, finished with a brunoise of carrots and chives, and topped with crispy, applewood-smoked bacon.

Wisconsin Cheddar Gougeres, chive creme fraiche, and Jamon Iberico de Bellota

Salad

Caprese, salad of heirloom tomatoes, garlic tuile, mozzarella sphere infused with roasted garlic air, aged balsamic glaze

Not your standard caprese salad (mozzarella, basil, tomato, vinegar). We spiced it up by inflating a mozzarella curd with roasted garlic air (roasted garlic tossed into an ISI nitrous cream whipper, a neat, albeit useless culinary trick… looks pretty though). It is presented with a salad of heirloom tomatoes on top of a brioche round and topped with a garlic tuile (a la French Laundry).

Seafood

Sea Bass Sancocho, yuca, plaintains

Sancocho is a traditional Colombian soup with sea bass instead of cod filets.

Sea Bass, two more ways – miso marinated, broiled, rainbow chard, mango, avocado salsa

Miso marinated sea bass generally pairs well with pea shoots so we substituted them out for a prettier, and just as earthy, rainbow chard from the farmers’ market. Another pairing that goes well with sea bass is mango so we put together a mango salsa (mango, avocado, avocado blossom honey, lime).

Poultry

Duck breast “a la mode” – Foie Gras mousse pate, brioche triangle, honey-thyme balsamic sauce

The “a la mode” part was a play on serving it with a creamy, rich foie gras mousse pate with a brioche triangle. For the second time in a row, this was my favorite thing to eat in the dinner. The pate was super rich and creamy and the duck breast and glaze had a tremendous amount of flavor.

Meat

Braised Oxtail, Shitake, Jumbo Shrimp

Slow braised (veal stock/chicken stock mixture), red-wine marinated oxtail. Finished with a pat of butter, garlic, and chives topped with Shitake mushrooms, and a seared, jumbo shrimp. I was particularly happy with the way this dish turned out on the plate. It was simple, elegant, and each ingredient really brought attention to itself as well as accentuated the other.

Dessert

Molten Lava Cake, macerated summer berries

At first glance, a predictable and normal sounding finisher to a meal. But I challenge any exotic dessert to a well-made chocolate lava cake with berries marinated with Amaretto liqueur. I can hardly think of a better end to a meal this epic. The bottom of the cake was sprinkled with some toasted almond meal which gives it some texture and a distinct, toasted-almond flavor on the palette.

Mignardises

Lemon glazed cookies

Holy smokes these were good. The cookie had a nice, soft crumb and was expertly balanced out with a smooth, lemon glaze.

Entire Gallery

Photo Credit: Chris Chan and myself

This post is tagged avocado blossom honey, bacon eggs, balsamic, brioche, caprese, chocolate, dinner, duck breast, epic, french laundry, garlic tuile, gougeres, iberico, lava cake, lemon cookies, mango, microgreens, miso, molten, mozzarella sphere, oxtail, sea bass, shrimp, thomas keller, wisconsin cheddar