Archive for the ‘Culinary’ Category

A Delicious Welcome | Catering to a Gala Affair in Central Florida

Monday, October 25th, 2010

We recently assisted a well known hotel client to produce the “welcome” course for a 2,100 person gala dinner. After countless hours of detailed preparation we were able to answer the question: what happens when you combine…

  • 6,300 precision cut pasta sheets with the word “Welcome” written in 3 languages stamped in squid ink
  • 1/4 mile of vegetable mousse in 3 flavors (pea and mint, cauliflower and anise, sweet potato and cumin)
  • 25 gallons of roasted red pepper coulis
  • 10,000 grape tomatoes carefully scored, roasted, peeled and dehydrated to look like an open flower
  • 8,400 fava beans husked, peeled and split
  • 8,400 purple cauliflower florets
  • 2,100 elephant garlic chips
  • 2,100 basil crisps
  • 2,100 slivered euro cucumbers
  • 4,200 red endive leaves
  • 10 cases of hand-cut eggplant skin thread
  • 20 gallons of muscatel vinaigrette
  • 24 cases of frisee
  • and a tremendous 900 man hours?

Deconstructed Saffron Pasta Salad with Autumn Vegetables

The answer is a beautifully plated dish of Deconstructed Saffron Pasta Salad with Autumn Vegetables. As always, we tip our hats to the team of chefs who gracefully executed this event!

The Puff 'n Stuff Team

At Puff ‘n Stuff Catering & Events, we happily provide the same level of enthusiasm and attention to detail for each event we produce. From 20 person lunches, to 2,000 person galas, our mission is to passionately perfect your event!

Posted in Catering, Catering Reviews, Corporate Catering, Culinary, Menu Ideas, Orlando Caterer, Orlando Catering | 1 Comment »

Tasty Indian Food Choices | Livening Your Catered Events | Central Florida Catering

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Why not spice up your event with a traditional and festive Indian Food spread that will delight and intrigue your guests pallets?   Indian Food is fun and interesting and there is a wide variety to choose from including Indian Curry recipes & Indian Dessert recipes.

Pickle recipes, chaat, koftas, dosas, and Jain and Punjabi preparations like aloo mutter and malai paneer are great traditional vegetarian recipes that can be found in Indian Cuisine.  For our non-vegetarians, there are numerous options that will tantalize your taste buds as well. Seafood recipes like Bengali, Malabar, and Goan, are sure to excite your guests.

India and Indian food are diverse and exciting with many varieties and styles from Mughlai, South Indian, Guajarati, even coastal food.

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Posted in Cooking, Corporate Catering, Culinary, Holiday Catering, Picnic People San Diego | No Comments »

Culinary Musings on Achieving Excellence

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Cooking by definition is what happens when you apply a temperature change and/or chemical change to an edible object (ingredient). The relationships between ingredients and a controlled environment, as well as exposure to other ingredients, are the building blocks to knowledge. Its the understanding of these relationships that inspire innovation. From the simplest forms of manipulation such as butchering a piece of meat to accent its appeal in flavor, texture, and visual attributes; to raising the experience of elements through altering their structure on a molecular level through all forms of technique. This library of knowledge and experience of these relationships are what forms and shapes style. Where creativity meets methodology innovation is born, but it’s not enough to achieve excellence.

Finesse
Accuracy
Respect
Timing
Execution

These are the building blocks of greatness, but these attributes alone are still not enough to achieve excellence. It’s through the harmony of all these elements in unison that even approach excellence, like the building of a dish. Each flavor layering and accenting another, each technique bringing out the most relative flavor, texture, and color of an ingredient to create balance and union, and at the same time evoke awe and satisfaction. Thomas Keller (tkrg.org) once said to me “It’s just food Chef” as we were in the middle of service on a busy Saturday night. The defining moment of my culinary career is having my mentor tirelessly drive my dishes and cooking to perfection…and in the same breath utter the words “It’s just food.”

Those words shook my core at a time in my life where I was focused entirely on training and perfecting my technique and pallet. It was then I was reminded of the primal necessity of what created the existence of my field, and defined what I do as a chef. At the core food is a cornerstone of survival and demands the reverence of sustenance before all else. It is that experience in which we all must participate in order to survive that my goal in life is to bring pleasure to. At the end of the day it’s these ideals that drive me to achieve excellence. But its not just about getting from A to B and doing it well, a big part of it all is enjoying the journey.

Bryce Balluff, Chef de Cuisine
bryce@puffnstuff.com | 407.629.7833

Posted in Bryce Balluff, Catering, Cooking, Culinary, Puff 'n Stuff Catering, Thomas Keller | No Comments »