Cooking for others is a gift to yourself

by Shawn Pillai

I was recently offered a great opportunity to cook. My mother planned a cocktail party and hired me to do the food. I decided to test my organizational skills and culinary abilities by designing a large menu. I produced a tentative menu a full week in advance. Usually the finalized draft of a menu looks far different from the first draft. As is the case in many professions, cooks pull inspiration from each other. I researched menus that my friends had designed in the past, as well as visited websites belonging to upscale local restaurants.

James was courteous enough to stop and snap a picture of me upon request.

Much to my dismay, I did not get to shop for the items myself as I was too busy with other obligations. My mom and dad dutifully drove to a Frederick, Maryland Wegmans to purchase the specialty ingredients I required. I purchased the meat products locally through butcher shops such as Emerick's Meat Packing Co. in Hyndman, Pennsylvania and B & B Meats in Frostburg, Maryland. By the time I began preparation Friday, I had collected all of my ingredients and had developed a solid plan of execution. Friday and Saturday I spent a collective total of about 10 hours preparing as much as I could beforehand. Typically when catering such a party, the goal is to prepare up to the point where it is possible to warm and plate all of the food within a half hour just as guests are arriving.

Left: Crab Florentine in puff pastry. Right: Prosciutto wrapped white asparagus.

Murphy's law states "anything that can go wrong will go wrong." I am almost certain that Murphy was a cook when he coined that particular epigram. Merely 2 hours before the guests were to arrive at 5:00 p.m., my assistant backed out on me. Catey had gotten her schedule confused and discovered that she had to be present at a performance with the FSU Chamber Choir starting at 4:30 p.m. I called my friend Josh and asked if he could help, but unfortunately he was sick and was unable to lend me his talents for the evening.

Left: Tomato caprese skewers. Right: Duck confit, grilled flatbread, roquefort, fig preserves.

This is the beginning of the end, I thought. There's no way I can turn out all of this food by myself. I called James Spano, fellow cook at Rocky Gap, hoping that he wasn't working for the evening. "You've got to help me," I pleaded. "Come to my parent's house at 4:30. Wear your chef coat and get ready to bust your ass." In a fantastic stroke of luck, James was available and more than willing to pull through and help in my hour of need.

Left: Braised and seared pork belly, spiced orange gastrique, lentils, watercress salad. Right: Roasted beef tenderloin, potato cake, trumpet mushroom, red wine veal jus lié.

Because James and I have worked closely together the past two years, we operated perfectly as a team. Everything went smoothly and the party was a success. As a bonus, James and I had a ton of fun cooking, eating, drinking, and receiving compliments on our work. Catering is uniquely different from restaurant work because the cooks are present and available for conversation, and guests are quick to offer comments on the food. Consequently, the food had better be good.

Grilled lamb chops, cannelinni bean purée, mirepoix, roasted tomato lamb jus. Taken and modified from Savage River Lodge's menu.

Thankfully, all of the guests were very pleasant and appreciative. "Absolutely fantastic. You've really outdone yourself," one guest said. Another made the claim that the food was "some of the best I've ever had in my life." We received a multitude of questions about certain ingredients and methods of preparation that we were more than happy to provide answers to. In the end, the event went as well as it possibly could have gone.

Though food can be an expression of how much one cares for others, it can also reinforce how much one cares about themselves. It is important for all of us to strive toward providing our own sustenance rather than relying on pre-made quick fixes provided by an industry that doesn't have our best interests at heart. I'm not claiming that everyone should be a great cook, but rather stressing the importance of at least putting some effort into learning how to cook. Experiment and make mistakes, and don't be afraid to remake something that has gone wrong in the past. Examine every step of the process and decide what can be done to improve the quality of a dish.

Cooking can be a metaphorical window into how we approach challenges in life. If someone settles for pop-tarts every morning and burnt frozen pizza every night, what else are they merely settling for as they go about their lives? When someone is unwilling to put forth an effort toward providing quality food for themselves, what other seemingly insignificant facets of life might they be approaching lethargically or even incompetently? The effort that a person puts toward improving themselves is a direct reflection of that person's character.