What would you serve a famous chef?

I imagine some of you have been in this situation...If you had the opportunity to host a well-known chef for dinner in your home, what would you cook? Would you cook to impress or not. How about just comfort food on the theory he/she rarely eats home cooking? Or would you cook your favorite dinner, knowing you do it so well? Just curious.

For the chefs out there, what would you want to eat?

I'd go with the simple comfort food angle. That's the kind of stuff I know how to cook and that just about everyone likes. No way I'd try to out-chef a chef.

It would be something I have made many times and know it to be reliable. It would be based on veggies/fruits that are in season, and according to the weather we were having. If in the heat of the summer, we would grill and hopefully eat outside by the pool. I never try and out do anyone when it comes to cooking. I like to be comfortable in my skin while in my kitchen cooking for guests.

No way a famous chef would fine his/her way here!

No way I'd put myself to the test by cooking for a great chef. My wont when I do have to entertain chefs is to invite them to one of the best restaurants in Tel Aviv if they are visiting here or, if sharing a meal with them on their own turf, to one of the restaurants other than his/her own that I admire in that particular city. In other words, I'll let another chef put him/herself on the line for the chef.

Unless it is Chanukah and then I will not hesitate to invite anyone to feast on my potato lakes!

Best
Rogov

I would treat a great chef no different than I would any other guest in my home. I would prepare the best of what I have on hand and something to showcase the Pacific Northwest. I always prepare salmon cooked over alder wood. I would add a couple imaginative salads (hopefully including vegetables from the garden), a hot vegetable (proably cauliflower, green beans or carrots) and some other meat dish and a starch, which is usually some type of rice dish in my home. I do slammin' tarts and would have one of those and another dessert; either an amaretto pound cake; chocolate molten mousse cake; rum cake or ice cream. But, it would really depend on how much of which ingredients I have on hand.

[Jenise]

I'd cook foods that are my own creations--nothing from a recipe--and that speak to my strengths as a cook. Which is also the food I pretty much cook every day anyway--our everyday meals are the kind of food I could proudly serve anyone. Always two courses, and always the best I can do with what I have available. It's not as if we limp along on Lean Cuisines or canned soup and grilled cheese sandwiches most nights, and only cook from scratch on special occasions. The only difference guests make is that I add layers: an appetizer, and sometimes a dessert (though I don't consider that a requisite). If this guest were visiting from afar I'd try extra hard to incorporate fresh local ingredients.

I would try to keep it fairly simple, as there's no way I am going to impress with technique, and focus on showcasing top quality ingredients. Like Jenise, I would also play to my own strengths as a cook. Given that I live in the midst of pork country, I'd probably get a rack (or two) of locally raised pork ribs and prepare Memphis-style BBQ on the smoker. If it were today, I'd supplement with locally harvested morels and locally grown asparagus and maybe make a cornbread to round out the meal. Then, I'd drag out a couple of superb bottles from the cellar to distract my esteemed guest from the food

Mark Lipton

Then, I'd drag out a couple of superb bottles from the cellar to distract my esteemed guest from the food Mark Lipton

That might be the key to the whole evening!

I would do wild game....Roasted fawn backstrap with chimi churri, Breast of pheasant done su vee(spelling) with chanterelles,seasoned with marjoram and lavender served over hand parched Net lake long wild rice, or breast of crane milanesa napolitana with a sundried tomato pesto.

Real food, not the stuff that top chefs want you to believe is real food.

I'll wait until everyone's finished.

I'll wait until everyone's finished.

Wait! Chef, you mean... you have an opinion on something? Color me shocked!!!

Mark Lipton

No, no... he's deciding where to go!

I think chefs appreciate simple and fresh, as we all do. I'll proffer yesterday's menu: I spatchcocked two Cornish game hens and grilled them over charcoal. Served with mixed vegetables (also done on the grill in the perforated pan) and village Burgundy. Should have done a starch, and I meant to grab a couple of 7-grain rolls to toast but forgot.

No, no... he's deciding where to go!

You have good instincts, my son.

What Jo Ann said. And probably something from our garden.

My cooking is hit and miss, as I've said before, so no way would I try anything even slightly fancy. There are some things that never fail (or not yet any way): simple, straightforward stuff - peasant food. I cook good soup. If the chef came for lunch, a bowl of good thick soup and a chunk of fresh bread would be the order of the day.

A friend of mine once cooked dinner for a small group that included a well known and very photogenic TV-chef-of-the-moment. He opted for a simple meal with a salad picked out of the garden 20 minutes before it was eaten. The chef was fulsome in his praise. I think my friend may have been hoping to charm him into a closer friendship but that didn't happen.

I'd go for the best ingredients I can lay my hands on at that moment and prepare them in the most modest way. The only thing I'd go full throttle in would be in the food&wine pairings, because I'd feel on relatively safe grounds there. And for the rest I'd go for anything that would not remind the chef of his (or her) normal days of darn hard working: these people don't have days off very often, so nothing to remind of work

Cor

I'll wait until everyone's finished.

Wait! Chef, you mean... you have an opinion on something? Color me shocked!!!

Mark Lipton

I'll have plenty of time to not have opinions when I'm dead.

Still waiting, but I must say I am quite impressed by the acuity of a few folks here.

[Jenise]

My cooking is hit and miss, as I've said before, so no way would I try anything even slightly fancy.

You're smart. I think anyone who actually TRIED to impress would likely fail to do so. Cook from the heart, feed the soul? I think so; prepare good, honest food of the type you're comfortable preparing and offer it with warmth. That's good enough for any guest, no matter who they are.

I'll have plenty of time to not have opinions when I'm dead.

Good point, Chef! And thank you to all for your ideas on this topic.

I'll have plenty of time to not have opinions when I'm dead.

Good point, Chef! And thank you to all for your ideas on this topic.

You're quite welcome.

Now for my opinion.

I don't want rich sauces. I don't want "fancy". I don't want elaboration. I am a big believer in the guest/host relationship and am always grateful to be invited to dinner.

Simple, local food, simply prepared is best. A roast, a steak, lobster, a stew, petrale sole, whatever - mostly unadorned - would suit me just fine. And with some advance notice of what we're going to be eating I'll try to bring a wine I think appropriate.

I'm answering this not as a "famous" chef, but just as a chef. I think all the chefs I've known over the years would agree with me.