Whatās the filo nests?
Cute sous-chefs!
Now thatās a feast! BRAVO!!! Time to put your feet up.
Gorgeous! Love your dessert models!
They are! Are their parents consenting to their pictures being posted online though? That kinda stuff gives me shivers.
If you are interested in how to achieve that result , hereās the illustration I posted in Holiday Baking December 2025.
You knocked it out of the park! Taking note of your menu for future inspiration.
That is a French apple tart with scrunched-up phyllo on top.
I made Mom a kentucky butter cake for an event she had on saturday (same day as the party) and I put it in too small of a pan, so I had leftover batter. I baked it in a smaller pan and planned to keep it at home, but it looked nice enough that I took it to the party instead as an āextremely plainā option for anyone who didnāt want either pastis gascon OR chocolate mousse.
Thereās a good video here that showed me how to do it. It wasnāt hard.
Ok, final report:
This went off really quite well. I have a couple of nitpicks for myself to improve, but overall - B+/A-.
My responsibilities: I handled menu planning, sourcing, shopping and testing, as well as cooking everything except the steak. I sourced and built the charc boards, and replenished them during the cocktail hour. I did not have to do seating logistics or drinks (my brother is a wine collector and the cocktail hour was in his basement next to the wine cellar) and I didnāt mingle with the guests, really - I didnāt have to make small talk, etc. Since I had to flee right after dinner to beat the storm, I also didnāt do meal cleanup; that said, the mess from the cooking itself was already largely complete by the time dinner arrived. Cleanup was mostly about dishes from the guests.
Since the cocktails were in the basement, I also had the kitchen to myself, which, in an annoying open-plan mcMansion, was exceedingly helpful.
I will say I felt terrible for my brother, who is extremely sensitive to the cold (he actually has a medical condition related to this) but he volunteered to grill outside in January, so ultimately - this is on him. He obv didnāt know it would be almost record-setting cold this weekend. But more than that, itās a lot of pressure to prepare such a quantity of meat and to achieve different doneness, and to not āruinā expensive dry-aged meat - but he killed it on every level. It was delicious. I did my best to handle everything else, so that he could focus on that.
What Iād do differently next time:
- The pastis gascon is a labor-intensive dessert, and it reheats well. I shouldāve forced myself to make it the night before.
- This was my first time making chocolate mousse. I thought I had incorporated the cream completely, but when serving it, there were some white streaks.
- Mousse improvement #2 - you should put it in the serving cups before it sets up. Hard to make it pretty or neat once it sets - once scooped, it looks messy. I covered it with whipped cream this time, but next time Iāll let it set up in the dessert dishes itāll be served in.
- The basil whipped ricotta is delicious and I love the presentation under the carrots, but people were confused about it, I think, and much of it didnāt get eaten.
- I cannot supreme citrus well, and I really canāt supreme shitty dried-out navel oranges. A supersharp knife is needed to do this, but even with the best knife in the kitchen, I straight-up gave up and just focused on getting as much pith off the chunks of citrus as I could.
Things that went well:
- Iām a project manager by profession. I wrote and rewrote my order of operations, hour by hour, the day before, and kept the schedule in front of me for the 12-hour day of the party (I started at 8:30 AM,) checking things off as I went. This planning exercise prevented mistakes, saved my sanity and kept me focused on the right next task all day long. I was literally standing around with nothing to do in the crucial 30 min before dinner, waiting for the meat to be done - Iāve never executed that well before, ever.
- Mousse was a giant hit with the kids.
- The test run of the menu a few weeks before was also extremely useful. I overdressed both salads at the test run, so I kept myself in check yesterday, and the feedback from last night was that dressing level was good.
- I wore an apron all day, which I usually intend to do, but fail.
- Massaged kale salad is a cliche, but actually doing it with clean hands for a few minutes makes a big improvement in the texture of the kale.
Great report! It all looked wonderful. Very relieved you got home OK!
I applaud your stamina, strive for perfection.
I was never successful at supreming until I recently bought a Global knife. Definitely helps to do it in good daylight.
Oh, one other thing: I never made a charc board before and I didnāt know how to present the meat specifically, so I used the salami chain technique here.
Wow. Just wow. I hope your brother realizes how special you are! I like to think Iām a pretty fair home cook, but this was next level. Or next next level.
I think presentations like this always look nice on the plate, but are impractical for serving, so Iāve only ever done it in a single-serving format.
Iāll take all 3 desserts!
This was an amazing accomplishment. Kudos to you and to your rotisseur! Your project management skills served you well. What most home cooks suffer with is the timing of multiple dishes so that they finish in a manageable and appropriate sequence. With a bit of practice, decent facilities, great ingredients, and a clear recipe, most can turn out just about any dish, but juggling half a dozen other things can make even the best cooks struggle. Once each dish is in progress, this is about as close as one can come to true multitasking. Again, what an accomplishment and what a treat!
Thank you! Aside from eating delicious things, the whole puzzle of scheduling and executing time-sensitive tasks for multiple meal elements is my favorite part of cooking.
