a taste for katering

i recognize this is a pretty offensive image, but it's still funny

last night, i did some almost impromptu cateing for the late-night crew at mrs smith’s workplace.  the hard working agency types were pulling a radical all-nighter (probably super top-secret like most things in the high powered world of advertisation). i must say i was impressed, and somewhat flabbergsted at the commitment displayed by these indsutrious little advertising elves, particularly as i am an intensely lazy individual whose main focus while “on the job” is to craft novelty towers from the office recycling or stare out the window dreaming of a better place where unicorns lick my face…

anyway…

mrs smith decided that in order to work all night at their optimum performance levels, these creative types needed a little dash of culinary inspiration (i.e. dinner). so she enlisted my help to provide her typewriter monkeys with the vital sustenance they needed to keep working long into the dark night.

I’ve not really done much in the way of catering before (apart from a team away day for the now sadly defunct “food is love”) but i do find it kind of exciting. not like something i’d like to do for a job, but there is something quite satisfying about making food for a large (ish) group of people outside of a dinner party or similar setting.  i suppose it’s the lack of connection that means no-one has to complement you if they don’t feel that what you’ve produced is any good. if, for example (and i was a little concerned about this myself), what you serve is too spicy, or salty, or flawed in some other way, chances are that you’ll hear about it, and most likely directly. especially if you’re being paid (which i wasn’t for some reason – i guess it’s all about the love here at smith & co.). unlike at a dinner party where you’ll usually go out of your way to complement the host and his cuisine while guzzling gallons of cheap rose, only to bitch about how the mussels were rubbery and trifle just isn’t innovative on the bikeride home (and if you don’t bike home, then that’s why you’re fat). so i was quite keen to see how this whole event would go .

perhaps predictably, i decided on korexican birdreedos as beeing a pretty good option for the 20 or so people who really weren’t there for the food, but were there to work. it’s an interesting set of flavours, oh so trendy, easily adjusted on the spice-o-meter, and all packaged up into a familliar tortilla shaped wrap that even the most culinarily prudish can relate to. there was at least one vegetarian, so i did some tofu, mushrooms and peppers, in the same bulgogi style that i have used twice before as well as beef and pork for the non hippies. unlike the first time, i decided that it was much more cost effective to make my own bulgogi marinade, not to mention being much more fun, and hopefully excellently and more awesome ( i’m well aware that that makes very little sense…). the recipe i used is pretty simple:

(this is for about 4-6 people)

• 3 tablespoons  light soy
• 2 tablespoons crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon crushed ginger
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons korean chilli paste
• 2 tablespoons korean fermented bean paste
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 finely minced onion (i used the bamix and a splash of mirin to completely liquidize this guy)
• sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon mirin

-mix it all up, marinate your meat.
like anything, i adjusted the quantities to get the flavour that i thought was right, and i went a little easier on the chilli than usual.

i made everything up the night before, and left the meat and tofu (seperated of course) to marinate.
the next day i loaded up the king of shopping, edwardes, with all the tools and ingredients and headed off to south london. the massive load unfortunately proved too much for edwardes, and his back whhel near exploded under the load, breaking a total of 9 spokes, which will lead to his untimely demise, at least in his current form.

anyway. everything went really straightforward, although cooking a large quantity of meat and rice on a small, shit stove in an advertising agency is considerably more difficult than i had anticipated. it would have been a lot easier if i’d had a hot plate that spanned two burners, but as it was, it turned out ok, i just cooked the meat in small batches and put it in the oven to keep warm.

everything else was super easy, there was plenty of food for everyone, it wasn’t too spicy, and it went really quickly, so i can only assume that it was a success. the only thing i noticed was that the beef was a little dry.

even though i enjoyed the experience, mostly because it’s pretty great to know that something you’ve created has given a whole bunch of people a tortilla full of joy, i don’t think i’m goign to start an office catering business just yet.