Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Throwing Parties.
Cooking for a crowd, recipes for a salad party, and a VIP invite to a... Puppet Prom?
Before I pontificate on events past, I want to invite you to my next one: the Spring fundraiser for Los Angeles’ Bob Baker Marionette Theater at the famous Garibaldina Society It’s an adults-only costume party with artist-made corsages, the raffle to end all raffles, dancing, prom photos, live music, costumes, and salad by me!
Saturday, May 11
7 PM to 11 PM
Get your tickets now (Please note, this event is 21+).
Ok, housekeeping out of the way, let’s talk events.
Event production is an addictive sport. It will leave your feet throbbing (I wear Calzuro clogs for cooking) and your hair greyed, but I can’t quit the adrenaline-fueled whack-a-mole that is cooking and hosting parties. I swear up and down, “never again!,” but the morning after a party comes to an end, I’m already plotting the next occasion.
There is no plug-and-play formula for professional party planning -- each location, each client, and every menu requires a novel set of creative solutions. It’s the stuff anxiety dreams are made of, but it’s also some of the most rewarding work I’ve known. This past month I catered and conceived of the biggest event of my career -- an 175 person party for Chobani during Expo West (the Frieze of the food world). The party was a celebration of Chobani’s acquisition of La Colombe, and they wanted it to be splashy. GAHHHH!
Let me paint a picture of ‘go-time.’ Upon arrival, I was notified that the power was out at the hotel and vicious Santa Ana winds were sweeping furniture into the pool. I feared an imminent Jean Claude and Christo umbrella scandal, not to mention my own private crisis of being unable to light the charcoal grill. I was already set back an hour and I had only just arrived.
My prep space turned out to be located on the opposite side of the hotel from the party, requiring me to pass through another 300 person corporate event each time I replenished the buffet. What’s more, I had to negotiate kitchen space with the hotel chef with a ‘capital C,’ his name embroidered on his white coat and the charm of a drill sergeant. But hey, that’s events for you! So stop kvetching and make magic happen!
In the weeks before, I had nightmares that I had neglected to order the chicken and was forced to weave my way through the Rose Parade to reach the butcher. To quell my nerves upon waking, I tripled my recipes. I stored totems of quart containers filled with sauces and dips in refrigerators up and down my block (bless my neighbors). I made a spreadsheet, color coding each item so I would know what I would source from the farmers market, the Middle Eastern market, and the wholesale restaurant supply. I sketched the buffet tables to scale, situating every dish on the menu, and sourced an array of heavy linen tablecloths from Madre Linen (for 10% off on their site use MADRELOVESSALAD at checkout). Then, I happily drove to the piñata district to source serving pieces for the event.
If you haven’t been, the piñata district is my favorite thing about L.A., with its warehouses stocked with Mexican toys and party favors, sold alongside ceramics from Puebla, hand-forged comals, and propane burners for copper cauldrons as deep as bathtubs. And when you finish shopping, you can choose from the widest array of street food North of the border.
As a nod to the owner of Chobani’s Turkish heritage, I themed the menu, Turkish Breakfast for Dinner (recipes for paid subscribers below). I fabricated teetering towers to balance Turkish simit, a distended, seeded bagel-like bread that I had seen presented on wooden poles by street vendors years ago on a trip to Berlin. I served 24 hour fennel seed and aquavit gravlax alongside crispy capers and cucumbers seasoned with candied cumin. (The trick on the capers is to gently dehydrate them in advance, then fry them in olive oil until crispy).
I finished beet and turmeric pickled eggs with crispy, crunchy, Salad for President salad toppers (more on that below). The eggs were brilliant because they could be soft boiled and held in their brine for a couple of days before, brought to room temp and sliced an hour before serving.
Yogurt was the anchor of the meal so I marinated lamb and chicken in Greek yogurt with Urfa chili, garlic, allspice, and cumin, and portioned it off into one gallon Ziplocs stacked flat in my chest freezer. This freed up space in the fridge and also meant the meat didn’t have to be transported in a cooler, since it was thawing on our way to the venue.
I seasoned ghee ahead of time with ground turmeric and paprika so it could be warmed up and brushed onto trumpet mushroom kebabs before grilling. I served the meat and veg kebabs with a saffron yogurt drizzle, cardamom zhoug, and toum, whipped Middle Eastern garlic sauce. I have been using the leftover toum for everything from dips and sautéed greens since. I think I might process my garlic this way from now on, it’s so useful and keeps for months in the fridge.
A parade of salads included citrus with pistachio dukkah and dates, SIMPLi gigante beans with confit of cherry tomatoes and garlic, sliced red onion, basil and parsley. (for 15% on their site use code SFPxSIMPLi15%). Finally, my simple but impressive flick of the wrist -- dolma cooked on the plancha until the outer leaves are crispy and the rice tender and warm. And yes, those came straight out of a can.
The recipients for all of this fare were eager entrepreneurs and buyers who had descended on Anaheim for the annual natural foods convention, Expo West. They had spent days ambling through windowless convention halls, sampling “food” compressed into bars, infused beverages, and gummy bears imbued with the promise of an optimized life, health, and vigor.
I have never had a reason to attend Expo West in the past, but some of you might have caught wind of the fact that my husband and I soft-launched a product: Salad for President Salad Toppers! It's our mission to make salad a part of every meal, adding untold texture and crunch to your otherwise boring bowl of greens, transforming them from blah to a Parmesan Pizza Party or a Thai Coconut Crunch creation. We are starting small, selling in our favorite specialty shops (Gjusta Grocer, Cookbook, Carla’s Market, Altadena Beverage, Sqirl Take-Away and Post Supply), but we are working to scale up so we can bring salad to the people. So stay tuned for more on that!
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