Progress! (At Last...)

Our bride-to-be seals the deal with a caterer.

By Sara Cardace

I'm happy to report that we are now 99 percent sure that we're going to go with Chef Rossi of the Raging Skillet for our catering needs. John and I snuck out of work last week for a lunch meeting with Rossi to go over all of our thoughts and concerns on the sample menu she'd proposed.


Our basic thoughts were:

1. Vegetable dumplings: Meh. Can we sub in the delicious fried porcini wontons with red-pepper ragout that she let us try at the tasting? (Answer: Yes, of course.)

2. Penne primavera: Boring! Anything we can sub in? (Answer: Yes, though she advised us that ravioli don't hold up well when given the chafing-dish treatment. We told her we love pasta with brown-butter and sage, and she came up with a delicious shitake/farfalle idea that was much more to our liking.)

3. Cheeseburger sliders: Yum, obviously, but we feel like every fancy party has these as of late. Would she be willing to try to come up with an appetizer version of Vietnamese banh mi, those delicious little Vietnamese sandwiches of marinated pork and pickled vegetables on crispy French bread? (Answer: Yes, although since she keeps kosher, she won't be able to experiment with these herself. She asked that we come up with a recipe or bring an actual banh mi so her chef can have a go. We are more than happy to partake in any excursion that allows for us to nibble on banh mi ourselves!)

4. Flank steak carving station: Per my mother, how much more would it be to upgrade to filet mignon? (Answer: $5 per person, which doesn't sound too bad until you do the math and realize it would add up to $750 all told. Frankly, I'd rather spend the money on booze.)

Rossi was even so kind as to share her recipe for mahi-mahi with pomegranate glaze with me after I mentioned that I'd tried to replicate her proposed fish entree at home with truly disastrous results. Honestly? My version was inedible -- it was probably the only thing I've ever cooked that John was unable to stomach. I'm psyched to try again to make sure it's something I think our guests will like.

She also went over all of the costs and taxes and gratuities in detail to make sure that we're all on the same page -- which was great, as I know that the fine print on catering contracts can cause couples no end of grief. Best of all, we have until the week before the wedding to make any final menu substitutions and to give her the final headcount, which calms my nerves somewhat, as apparently we're coming up on the time when we'll really need to give Rossi a down payment or risk losing her to another couple. Happily, we happen to be having dinner with my parents on Wednesday, so we can go over everything with them and make sure everything's in order. After that, it looks like I can finally strike "Find a caterer, like, yesterday" off my to-do list.

So, feeling good. More soon!