Monique Burr- the biggest event to date

April has been a crazy whirlwind of a month. Layla's birthday was followed by Easter, followed by a wedding cake, and finally, the culmination of it all, the Monique Burr event. Monique Burr is an organization that advocates for abandoned and abused children. Every year, Roy's heads up an event called A Night in the Village. The parking lot is transformed into a "village" with lights, fences, trees, tables, a stage, etc and the businesses in our plaza open their doors for special treats and shopping with all the ticket and sales proceeds going to the Monique Burr Foundation. In the past, there has been approximately five hundred attendees. This is the biggest event I have prepared for to date. The stress level at work has been through the roof this last month. Event after event, combined with management vacations and conferences left us all on edge and the usual back of the house spirit was definitely a little more tense. I've been feeling the pressure. We began preparing for the event a couple of months ago. We determined the dishes and I created a detailed timeline to make sure everything was prepared in time. It all went off without a hitch. I didn't feel much stress as far as the actual dishes were concerned. My stress was definitely more of a social thing. Roy Yamaguchi himself attends this event, as well as many of the Executive Chefs of the Roy's on the East Coast. Back of the house is not very big, and having an extra five Chefs plus food to serve 500 people only makes the space that much smaller. I'm used to having the back of the house/pastry area mostly to myself, and many (influential) people were in my personal space. I did my best to grin and bear it, but I definitely needed a couple of Ativan to make it through.

The day of the event, I was prepping and Roy Yamaguchi walks around the corner. I have gloves on my hands since I am preparing ready to eat food. I have to make a split second decision. Do I shake his hand wearing a glove, or do I take off the glove and shake his hand with a sweaty, just-ungloved-so-kind-of-powdery hand. I opted for the ungloved handshake and as he walked away after a quick head nod and "nice to meet you", quickly face palmed myself. I just shook Roy Yamaguchi's hand...and my hand was gross and sweaty and powdery. I quickly shook it off and realized that he has definitely been in this business long enough to understand, and was thankful I was wearing the glove to begin with. My favorite dish of the night was my Kaffir Lime Curd Tarts with a Ginger Meringue and my Signature Sugar Cookie base. The idea for this was my own, and I love how they turned out.

We also had Cannolis stuffed with a Haupia (traditional coconut pudding) cannoli filling. Some had a brunoise of pineapple folded in, and some had chocolate shavings folded it.

Natane was in charge of the Ice Cream for the Teeny Tiny Ice Cream Cones. She made pistachio and nutella ice creams, and a blueberry sorbet. She spent most of the night in the freezer scooping ice cream. THAT is dedication.

Our final dessert was a Yuzu Pound Cake with Mirin Macerated Strawberries and a Basil Whipped Cream. It was a new take on Strawberry Shortcake and went over very well.

Overall, the event couldn't have gone any smoother. I learned quite a bit and am proud of the success of the event. I'm extremely glad that it is over for the year, however. Now that I have done one of these events, I have a better idea going into the next one what to expect.

Chocolate Painting

Marc and I ADORE TacoLu- a local eatery in Jax Beach that seriously has the best tacos around!!! My favorite is the avocado taco, I think. We go there fairly regularly, so when I heard that the owner, Don, was in with his family to celebrate his birthday at Roy's, I knew something special needed to be done. The signature artwork around TacoLu is the day of the dead skull. I saw a piece of artwork hanging there that I really loved, so I snapped a pic of it on my phone the last time we were there.

I pulled it up and did a loose interpretation of it on his birthday plate in chocolate. I wasn't able to get any pictures, but he did and posted them all on Facebook!

I was so glad he did! This is just one more reason I love my job and makes it get more amazing every day!

Haupia Bombe

My latest dessert was inspired by the last wine dinner dessert. Adam and I were talking after I introduced Coconut Panna Cotta to the menu, and he told me about a classic Hawaiian dessert, Haupia. Haupia is basically a coconut pudding that is thickened with a cornstarch slurry while it is being cooked. I wanted to try my hand at it and see how it tasted, so I located Roy Yamaguchi's recipe for the dish.

Haupia
4 cups unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch

To prepare the haupia, place the coconut milk, 1 cup of the water and the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix the cornstarch and the remaining 1 cup of water together in a bowl, add to the pan, and stir until the mixture returns to a boil and thickens. Remove from the heat and keep warm in a double boiler.



I decided to take this to the next level, and make it into a bombe, which is a layer in a layer, usually in a half sphere. I baked off my almond cake in teeny tiny half spheres, then piped the Grande Marnier Mousse into a slightly larger mold, and pushed the almond cake into it. I froze this so I could pop them out of the fleximolds and handle them. I made the haupia and ladeled it into a larger half sphere mold and let it cool slightly. I then inserted the frozen mousse/cake portion into the center of the haupia and froze them.


While they were freezing, I made a macadamia nut pastry crust and cut out circles slightly larger than the haupia bombes. I baked them and let them cool while I unmolded the haupia bombes onto a sheet tray. I torched the outside of each bombe individually just long enough to melt it enough for me to be able to cover it with toasted coconut before finished the assembly by putting it on the pastry crust base.

To plate, I made a Bourbon Blueberry Compote and serve the bombe on top of the leftover Blueberry Thyme Glass. It sounds like alot going on, but it REALLY all works together so well! I was ecstatic when I tried the finished dessert because it ended up being so much better than I had even imagined in my mind. I love it when that happens! I can tell I am continuing to grow in my skill AND in my willingness to explore the unconventional flavor profiles and pairings.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was another huge event at Roy's. This one differed from New Year's Eve in that New Year's eve was one night. Valentine's was an entire weekend, plus actual Valentine's night, which fell on a Tuesday.

I was able to put my signature dessert, Serenity, on the menu for this special day. Serenity is a dessert I have been working on and honing for many, many years. It is five layers of complete decadence. It begins with a layer of Devil's Food Cake topped with a swirl of (almond) Frangipane, Chocolate Cream Cheese Mousse, Toasted Marshmallow Italian Custard and finished with Dark Chocolate Ganache. This is then topped with pink and silver luster dusted chocolate curls and is then rolled in a cocoa powder and powdered sugar mixture. I served it with a Champagne Sabayon and two long stemmed chocolate covered strawberries.

Also on the Valentine's Menu was a Macadamia Nut Cheesecake with a Macadamia Nut Graham Cracker Crust and a layer of Dulce de Leche between the two. It was served with a Tropical Anglaise, Marinated Orange Segments, Blueberries, and Toasted Macadamia Nuts.

New Year's Eve

For special events, the owner and Chef partner, Adam, usually comes up with an idea and then has me execute it. It's fun to have him give me an idea and then us go back and forth making it better and better until we land on something we both are really excited about. He pushes me when it comes to flavors and techniques, and I'm always learning new ways to produce cool effects.

For New Year's Eve, Adam wanted to do a stuffed french toast. I stuffed Challah Bread with an Apple and Cream Cheese filling, then dipped the thick slices into a seasoned egg mixture that I created for my very own "French Cakes" creation (combining French Toast and Pancakes) and then pan fried the slices. For service, I reheated the slices in the oven, then dipped the bottoms in butter and vanilla seasoned Corn Flakes to give it extra crunch. It was served with the most delightful Apple Cider Syrup (recipe to follow), a scoop of Maple Bourbon Ice Cream, and garnished with an edible Orchid.

Adam also had a really cool idea for a special Strawberry Shortcake. It was served with Moscato Wine macerated strawberries, a vanilla foam, and pop rocks so it simulated strawberries and champagne in your mouth. Adam taught me how to make foams using soy lethicin, which is one of the new techniques I was speaking of earlier.

The Roy's Signature Melting Chocolate Souffle is a requirement at any special event of this type, for good reason.

We also had a cheese plate on the dessert menu.

There were two of us working the station, as we expected to do over 300 covers that night. Our station was styled out to the max, and service went incredibly smoothly with no issues at all. I look forward to many more events such as this!

Apple Cider Syrup Recipe:
1 cup apple cider
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbs. unsalted butter

Directions:
Whisk together all ingredients except for the butter in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture just to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer until thickened and reduced to about 1 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the butter until melted. Serve warm over stuffed French toast.

I made a HUGE batch of this so it took awhile to reduce down. This was perfectly fine, because it made the whole back area smell absolutely divine.