The Nick of Time In Catering
... Polish Pavillion Escapades
Once upon a time was when my friend Stash and I operated the Polish Pavillion, cooking from our homes in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In our circle of friends and neighbors we all were into cooking. Guests for dinner parties, discovering new restaurants, progressive dinners — gangs of us going to different homes for each course in a evening of meals, assembling at the end of he evening all together for dessert. Like that.
It was also in the time when Martha Stewart got into catering; of course, she went on to fame and fortune. For us, it was just a lark. Weekend gigs while still doing our regular day jobs. How we even got the idea to provide catering services I honestly don't recall. Stanley had a humongous Garland Stove. Maybe that's where it started. And, I liked to cook.
At the time in NYC there was the Spanish Pavilion, the Irish Pavilion. even La Pavillon. He and I were of Polish descent, so I came up with "Polish Pavilion". Not serving Polish food, just a coupla Pollacks.
By the way we were arguably at the leading edge of the "fusion" culinary trend. Quite possibly the originators. But, you won't find that fact in Wikipedia. Here is some more on that subject to read.
Once we were catering a big party at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Laperque Space. A famous Russian musician was the celebrity guest of honor, and we rustled up a gelatin Lebedushka to make him feel right at home at home. Like I said, we did fusion. Didn't call it that. Just a bunch of different stuff. Crudete with Baba Ganoush and Taztziki dips. Stuffed Grape Leaves. Chinese cold Noodles with Peanut sauce. And, Quiche. Lots of Quiche for that particular event.
Our work plan was: 1. Shop on Thursday evening, 2. Finish shopping on Friday evening, 3. Start the prep and some cooking on Saturday, 4. Finish the food on Sunday, 5. Deliver and serve that evening. On Saturday we pre-baked must've been a dozen or more Quiche crusts, big ones; 14 inch pans. On Sunday we finished them — each with Bacon, Ham, Gruyere, but of course. Since we didn't have that many pans, we baked the Quiches in stages. The Garland stove had two large ovens, so it went quickly.
Here's how it went sideways ...
I got the bright idea to line the Quiche pans with Aluminum foil so the finished pies could come out of the pans with some underlying support stacked for delivery to the event site. And, to be sure the liquid didn't spill through the crusts onto the pans, the crusts which were dotted with pin holes to ensure they baked flat.
It also turned out to be a Sunday when we had to "Fall Back" for the Daylight Savings Time changeover. It also turned out that little piece of information slipped our attention. In short, while we thought we were in good time, in fact we were that one precious hour behind. Mad scramble to get to the venue.
So far so good.
Then in the kitchen to slice the Quiches. OMG! The foil under each was glued to the crust bottoms. I had to unceremoniously flip each Quiche over and peel off the Aluminum foil. That worked well enough. Like we were in a hurry, so I cut them rather briskly [but nicely] with my Chinese chef knife. Whack-whack-whack-whack-whack.
Net, net the party was a success. It came off well, and on time. Whew!
Remembering back in the Brooklyn Academy kitchen getting the foods ready to serve. There was a lovely French woman standing by insisting nicely to be of help. Here I was, frantically chopping the French Quiches and this French Dame is sweetly pestering me to give her something to do. I had my hands full just to give the slicing my full undivided attention; no mental space to figure out something for her to make herself useful. I ignored her. I have no idea what her take away must have been. Me probably coming off rude. And, look how that Yankee was handling the Quiche!
