The final menu (With your aproval)

Blow out ideas
10-8-2013

Mini Carpaccio
Thinly sliced New York seasoned with s&p and hand rolled around finely sliced Arugula and capers put into a ¼ inch wide piece of cooked rigatoni. (It is to look like a rolled napkin in a napkin ring) with lemon vinaigrette and garnished with parmagiano curls.
Paul Goerg Blanc di Blanc Brut

Fried goat cheese with Sundried Tomato marmalade
French goat cheese with a bit of grated orange zest and parsley rolled in Panko crumbs. The tomato marmalade is beyond description. Balsamic glaze for garnish
Pinot Gris Emile Beyer 2009

Fresh Prawn Basted with garlic butter and grilled
1 Live prawn split and basted with a shallot garlic butter and open flame grilled. Served with Arugula tossed in a Champagne vinaigrette
Giacosa Arneis 2011

Roasted Tomato soup
Fresh Roma tomatoes roast with celery, carrots and onions until caramelized. Deglazed with white wine and chicken stock. Blend with garlic, tarragon, bay leaves, thyme and whipping cream. Put in blender and then pass through chinois. Garnish with basil oil. Served Hot.
Gruner Veltliner Knoll 2008

Meat ball stuffed with mozzarella served with homemade Talgliatelle.
Beef, sausage and a bit of ground turkey with herbs, milk and toasted falloni bread cubes with a boconcino of mozzarella in the middle. Fried and braised in homemade marinara sauce. Served over the pasta.
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Avignonesi 2010

Intermezzo
Ruby red grapefruit sorbeto with a small scoop of homemade grapefruit marmalade.
No wine

Beef Wellington
Seared beef tenderloin with a stone ground mustard coating. Wrapped in prosciutto di Parma, Sautéed mushrooms and puff pastry. With a roast garlic glaze. Served with Brussel sprout quarters sautéed in duck fat and bacon.
Opus One 1997

Grilled Caesar Salad
Romaine hearts that have been lightly dressed with EVOO and s&p and then grilled quickly over a very hot fire. Tossed with a classic dressing.
No wine

Pear poached in red wine with pistachio filling
Pear poached in Red wine, honey, water, sugar, vanilla bean, clove, bay leaf and star anise. Cored stuffed with a mascarpone pistachio filling. Dress with reduced poaching liquid.
No wine

Dessert wine with pinolatte cookies
Kracher #9 2009

Absolutely opulent!

If you have any leftovers, please pack a Wellington and a thermos of soup in a lunchbox and mail it to me.

[Jenise]

Gary, tell me about the staff you need to prepare and plate this meal. I'm pretty good for five courses on a dinner for eight or ten, in which I'm also a diner, but probably because I'm also a diner that's about it.

Gary, tell me about the staff you need to prepare and plate this meal. I'm pretty good for five courses on a dinner for eight or ten, in which I'm also a diner, but probably because I'm also a diner that's about it.

Jenise,
Here is the story. I host a blind tasting group a few times a month for $30 to $50 per person. The agreement is that I am allowed to save a portion of the money for as we call it a "Blow Out" I am an Italian trained chef and a Certified Sommelier here in Las Vegas. When the dollars start to mount up I start thinking up great food and wines that we can all share. The planning probably takes me on and off 15 hours. Talking to wine buyers, stores for the food and such, all remembering that we have a budget. Once I have the menu planed out I put it on a spread sheet I made to make sure that the food portion is what I thought it would be. This is fun for me to take all of the ingredients from 15 different recipes and have the sheet compute for me for example how many eggs I need or how many cloves of garlic I will use. This really works for me. We rarely have to go out and buy something we missed and we have very little left over save for a pack of fresh tarragon that I only needed 1 T of for the Tom soup. This one was budgeted at $50 head and it should according to my calculations come in a tad under. When we shop I start at the Food for less to pick up staples at better prices and then go to Trader Joes for some of the more hard to get things. At last we go to Whole Foods for all of the spec. items. Me and one helper (a grad of LCB) will do shopping Monday morning at 9:00 until about 11:00. Bring it all home and start the real work. We will prep any and every little thing that we can and still have quality and finish about 7:00pm. On Tuesday depending on how much work there is still to do we will start again at 10:00am. I leave the prepping at 2:30 to go pick up the wine and taste each bottle for soundness, re cork them and put them in storage for the next few hours. So I can sit down and enjoy the meal, I have another helper (CIA grad who is off that night) come over at 4:00 and finish up any last details and plate and serve all food, pour all wine and clean the kitchen. He works until 10:00pm. The Limo picks up the group at 10:30 to take them home. Fat and Happy. I will sit back and have a bit of Grappa and reflect on the day and review the Pictures and make notes so I can write down what went well and what needed improvement so the next time I can do a better job. The whole thing is in the planning and getting as much mis en place done as possible. My kitchen is tiny.

i'm thinking sancerre would be better with the goat cheese thing than p. gris; but.............. wow; this does sound like a 'blow out'!

Well done & well planned!