He's the Chef in residence at NAIT this week and they held a dinner with local food bloggers to tie in with the social networking trend surrounding food. When we arrived there was an empty seat right beside David that I took advantage of. The NAIT students prepared a tasting menu all prepared from recipes in David's cookbook, 'Deconstructing the Dish', which he autographed for me!
Shrimp
spoon bread stuffing
kick-ass tartar sauce
wilted chicory
Artic Char
Fennel braise
Yukon gold dumplings
Pork Chop
rubbed with 'stir-fry' paste
baby bok choy
kumquat-garlic sauce
Halibut
crab hash
saffron aioli
"angry" fritter garnish
Beef Tenderloin
red wine jus
lobster butter
buttermilk onion ring
I have to note here that the dinner was filmed and will be on the NAIT website and YouTube if I'm not mistaken. Remember I sat right next to him...probably gonna be on camera once or twice. What was I thinking??? Especially when I noticed the first selection on the menu, shrimp. Shrimp and I don't get along, I hate shrimp. But what was I gonna do? I'm sitting next to Chef Adjey, I'm most likely on camera...do I not eat it? Do I attempt to eat it and gag cuz I have a huge gag reflex with foods I don't like...you should see me with fresh tomatoes! Yikes! Anyway, I decided to follow his lead. He pulled the tail off a shrimp. I pulled a tail off a shrimp. He popped one in his mouth...I tried to bite mine in half - a little rubbery so I shoved it all in and chewed...and chewed...and chewed...remember I think I may be on camera so I tried not to show any displeasure but now I'm starting to worry that I've been chewing too long. Seriously, did I have to sit right next to him?! My favourite was the beef tenderloin followed by the halibut and artic char. I noticed that David hardly ate anything - I don't know if he didn't care for it or if he'd been eating all day or if he was too full from all the champagne! So I didn't feel bad for leaving something I didn't care for after at least trying it. I was proud of myself, especially for being a picky eater! But to my disappointment, there was no dessert! Sigh...
Also to note here, Bruce convinced me the night before that I should bake some cupcakes to give to Chef Adjey. So there we were, getting coffees from Second Cup and ingredients from Sobey's at 9:15pm the night before! Seriously...9:15! I was up baking and frosting until 12:15 cuz the cupcakes have to cool! Anyway, I gave a dozen to him. He didn't try one in front of me but Diane who had invited us to the dinner received a message from him regarding my cupcakes:
If you can't make it out, Diane emailed him and asked him what he thought of my cupcakes and his response was, and I quote, "I ate 5! The bellman ate the rest. They were delish!" Try and wipe the smile off my face, David Adjey thinks my cupcakes are delicious! What a great night!
What a hilarious post! Who knew? I didn't notice you chew and chew and chew - but I am going to watch the video again, just to see if I can tell! (hehe).
ReplyDeleteSO glad he liked your cupcakes. Did you read how much work I put into what I made to take to him? (The lobster fingers from his book). I think he took one bite after they got cold and he flung the rest somewhere. I was hurt. Truly. It was a lot of work. I did it to honor him, and to learn from him. I guess I should have known better. Chocolate is always the way to a man's heart. Good for you, Sarah!
And, great photo with him, too!
:)
Valerie