Simplicity Rules

Right now, as is the case every year, I am gearing up for a busy wedding season. Part of this is spending quiet moments in the kitchen, trying out new things either because some technique or ingredient has piqued my interest, or because a wedding couple has requested something particular that I want to get just right. And it’s an easy thing sometimes to get into that room and get all caught up in technique or tradition or some multi-staged process and forget that, in many cases, food is at it’s very best when we keep things simple and beautiful. And when we reach carefully for the place that brings food to its most pure and essential: to being the best that it can be.

The dish illustrated here is such a good example. I prepared it for a small wedding about a year ago. And this is a dish so simple, it just about makes itself. In this case, the pasta is handmade, of course. But you could do this yourself at home with store bought pasta without much loss of flavor.

The technique here needs no explanation, really. A shallot, some garlic, some butter, some wine. Black pepper. Chopped parsley. Live mussels and a large pot with a lid. Perhaps five minutes until everyone is open.

The mussels are steamed, then removed so the sauce can be reduced. Some of that is tossed through perfectly cooked pasta. Which is then plated. More sauce. Carefully placed mussels. In this case it was the second course of a plated winter wedding dinner. At home, though, even after a busy day at work, add a baguette and maybe a salad and you’ve made a beautiful, nutritious and even elegant dinner for yourself or your family. And with almost no work at all!

Recipe: Beurre Composé = Elevate!

When it comes to catering, one of the Foodisima go-to words is “elevate.” It’s at the heart of everything we do. The idea: create this thing beautifully, perfectly, simply and it’s wonderful. But now what can we add that will elevate it to the next level? And that which elevates can be quite simple. A classic: smoked salmon on toast rounds smeared with cream cheese. Lovely. Now hit it with capers and thinly sliced red onion and it’s a canape. It has been elevated very simply.

Composed butter is like that, too. The bread we serve at our caterings is already very special. House-made, there is always a vegetable ingredient -- sometimes spinach, sometimes potato, sometimes olive, sometimes nettle -- even in our gluten-free breads. We believe this vegetable element adds freshness to the loaf. This is undocumented but it has been our experience and so we always do it for catering. (The bread stays fresher longer. Beautiful! Also, it’s a pretty good example of something simple elevated.)

And what is a bigger treat than bread with lovely butter? And here you see another of our classic elevations. Though sometimes plain butter is available, most of what is on offer at an event catered by Foodisima is composed. Beurre Composé for that extra little something -- the surprise in the mouth -- that composed butter offers.

You can -- and we have! -- make Beurre Composé with any number of ingredients. The addition of Chanterelle Mushrooms produces a butter with a warm, earthy flavor and a golden glow. Curry, mustard, marjoram, dill, rosemary, tarragon, paprika, capers, chives, curry powder, shallot, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies or almost whatever you imagine can be added to butter to produce an interesting spread or topping for meat or fish. When making a compound butter, think of what the resulting spread is intended for. The compound butter you make to melt on a steak might be different than what will be spread on bread.

After many years, Foodisima has a signature Beurre Composé that never fails to delight the hundreds of people we feed each wedding season. We begin with high quality butter, then add fresh parsley and lemon zest. This is a very simple composed butter that people just adore. Something about the bright flavor of the lemon, the fresh flavor of the parsley and the rich fattiness of the butter that, for us and many of our customers, provides the perfect balance.

After all of this discussion, you will find Beurre Composé almost distressingly easy to make. Easiest of all with a food processor, but you can mix the ingredients in by hand if you must.

Foodisma’s Classic Beurre Composé

1 pound highest quality butter
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons parsley, trimmed and ready for chopping
1 tablespoon lemon zest (the zest of one large lemon)

With the chopping blade in place, add olive oil, parsley and lemon zest to the food processor bowl. Process until blended.

Roughly cut butter into chunks and add the chunks to the ingredients in the food processor. Process for several minutes, until the butter lightens and changes color. Scrape butter from bowl and place on parchment paper or cling wrap, to be formed into logs and either refrigerated or frozen. Alternately, spoon into ramekins or small canning jars (as shown) for easy transporting and serving.

For table service, the logs can be cut into discs for an elegant presentation. For the buffet table, we prefer low wide-mouth canning jars with the lid off but the ring back on for a rustic but elegant look.

Chill at least two hours before serving. The butter will last easily for two weeks in the refrigerator.

A Wedding Meal Without Compromise

In one of those odd turns of fate that life hands us, during a full calendar of wedding catering in the summer of 2010, we at Foodisima prepared not a single wedding meal that included meat other than -- in certain cases -- some wild and sustainably caught salmon.

We did some beautiful weddings, too. They were mostly gorgeous affairs that included white dresses, rented tuxes, perfectly turned-out bridesmaids, elegant cakes and weeping mothers of the bride. In short, from the outside looking in, they were mostly somewhat traditional, beautiful weddings. And the food we prepared for these weddings was beautiful and, in some ways, traditional, as well. That is, looking at the food what you would see is elegant, well-prepared and served wedding fare.

Foodisima Catering & Chef Services have always prided ourselves on local food that is, as much as possible, handmade. We make our own stocks and sauces, our own breads. Our polenta begins with cornmeal and when we serve scones or sorbets (and a lot of other things!) they are made by hand.

Over the years, our own awareness of local, organic food has grown to the point where we are very sensitive of carbon footprints, not only for ourselves but for our clients: we recycle, of course (doesn’t everyone?), but we also expend a lot of effort thinking about how we can not only reduce our own waste, but that of our clients, as well. It turns out that if you think like that long enough and hard enough, it trickles down into everything you do. Which, one way or another, led to the summer of 2010: all those weddings. No meat.

In the middle of what I think I will look back on as a watershed summer, Chelsea Clinton got married. And it happened that while I was busy preparing stocks and sauces and dressings for what would be a mostly vegan wedding, I was hearing about how Clinton -- who is vegan -- would be serving some vegan cuisine at her wedding, but also organically raised beef. The thought of this very prominent vegan serving meat at her wedding sort of appalled me. After all, this would be her day. Well, her and her (presumably also vegan) groom. If you can not, on that very special day, ask that your friends and family respect your choices, when can you? The rationale I heard (though admittedly not from Clinton herself) was that people have traditionally offered vegetarian options at carnivorecentric weddings, so why should vegan weddings not offer meat for attending carnivores? And my answer to that is... well, it’s different.

It isn’t that we at Foodisima don’t like meat or have a problem with it. In fact, aside from the watershed wedding thing, we prepared meat for a lot of other types of functions last summer. We don’t mind doing it and we do it very well. Also, if you want meat at your wedding -- if that’s part of your personal design brief for your special day, or even if it’s just that you always dreamed of filet mignon at your wedding, or chicken kiev, that’s just what you should have. But if what you really want is a different kind of wedding, well... nothing need stand in your way.

See, here’s the thing: for many people, their wedding will be the largest party they ever host. And it’s meaningful, this party. It represents a new beginning, in a way. And the birth of a new aspect in a special relationship. A whole new day. A party like that -- an important party, heavy in symbolism and sharing -- should stand for something. Especially if the wedding couples have made choices of conviction in their lives.

And here’s the other thing: even while I was hearing about Clinton’s compromise at her own wedding, I knew from experience that it was a compromise not worth making. And why? Because by that point I had helped create a special and meaningful day for several vegetarian couples and had watched while guest after guest not only ate happily of the vegetarian and vegan food on offer, they raved about it: this including grumpy looking uncles and obviously meat-eating dads. That’s because we’ve discovered that really good vegetarian and vegan celebration food is not about what isn’t there. It’s truly about celebrating what is.

Somewhere during that watershed summer -- somewhere between Chelsea and eight or ten happy brides -- I came to a place of conviction about what a wedding meal should look like. Truly, it can take many forms: it can be a stand-up affair, with luscious tidbits handed round by cater-waiters. It can be five courses beautifully served while the wedding party sips and toasts. Or it can be a bountiful buffet. But whatever it consists of, it should reflect the convictions of the wedding couple, whatever they happen to be.

This is your special day. The most special day ever. It need not be a day for compromise: it’s the day that will take you forward into the next phase of your life. Having that day -- and that beautiful party -- perfectly reflect your beliefs is not too much to ask.

Wedding Catering on Galiano Island

After a full summer of wedding catering on Galiano Island, followed by a quieter but still busy fall, we’ve settled in for a peaceful winter. The events we’re doing right now are smaller and less stressful -- yoga retreats, corporate shindigs and the occasional film industry event in Vancouver -- but it’s difficult not to miss the excitement of a wedding and being a central part of someone’s special day.

We have already taken bookings for weddings in 2011 and even one for 2012, even though 2012 still seems so far away! Still, it is important to do your legwork and homework as far in advance as possible. You want to be certain you find a caterer you feel comfortable with and who makes you feel confident they will deliver the meal you’ve been dreaming about.

Foodisima catered eight weddings in the summer of 2010. One of the things that really came home to me as we worked our way through a fun and busy summer was the fact that providing the catering for a wedding is so much more than making sure the food is on time, as ordered and delicious. For a lot of people, the meal associated with their wedding is the largest and most important party they will ever host. It’s essential that the caterer not lose sight of that: that they stay focused on being part of the team that will render wedding dreams.

I realize that some of that sounds ethereal, but it’s not really. It means working with the wedding couple for months before the big day, thinking through menu possibilities and permutations. It means being ready for bridal melt-downs (though I feel lucky not to have seen one yet, I’m always ready for the eventuality!) and pitching in when details outside of the kitchen have been overlooked.

Weddings are special. It’s different than any other type of catering. A corporate dinner for 100 just can’t compare to a wedding dinner for the same number. People are happy, laughing. Love is in the air and everyone comes prepared to have a good time.

If you’re getting ready for your wedding on Galiano Island, we’re looking forward to talking with you. We anticipate another summer of love and laughter, perhaps playing a part in your special day. ◊

Note: we created the menu above at left for one of the weddings we catered during the summer of 2010. This is a special service we provide, including one for each of your guests as well as a few extra for your scrapbook or wedding album.