Another Castle Wedding

Today I catered another wedding in the castle. Today I felt a little better because I now know how castle weddings worked. This wedding was slightly larger, with sixty-nine guests, but otherwise not much different, and a menu I had done before. 

I made up the canapés again, then helped out the breakfast chef by making a big batch of scones and bacon butties. Then some more odd prep jobs before plating and service time. Today, the arrival ceremony (which wasn’t really an arrival ceremony, since the wedding had simply taken place in another room in the castle, but really just canapés being served), was later, causing dinner to be later than yesterday. This meant a long time of us waiting between finishing prep and serving. It seemed like everything that needed to be done was done – sides and breads were baked, soups and sauces were on the stove, we were just waiting to put the main courses in the oven. So there was really nothing to do.

The dining table in the Castle gallery for weddings

I had two funny conversations with the executive chef who hired me today. First, he asked if I liked peeling asparagus. I remember this job from a previous wedding – we needed to peel the tough skin from the stalks of several boxes of asparagus for both an asparagus salad and a cream of asparagus soup. It was tedious and painful, but necessary. I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but it was no worse than other such jobs, and better than picking crab. So I said, sure, I’ll do it. Then he asked if I liked making pavlovas (they are fun, just time-consuming and tedious as well, but I like pastry), and I said yeah! So he said, “Great! I’ll put you on weddings again next week!” And I was excited! I love doing weddings, and it means avoiding another hard week in the bar for now.

My second conversation was when chef asked me about school and if we had a service aspect in our culinary courses. I have been asked this before by other chefs, and I agree it would be good for culinary students to learn about service, but this is more for the hospitality students, who act as waitstaff in the restaurant where the students cook. So I told him I would be in the restaurant next year, and he replied, “What do you mean next year? Didn’t I tell you? You’re staying here!.” So I take that as a compliment that they like my work and want me to stay!

Tonight’s menu was as follows:
Canapés: Vegetable Samoas, Filo Tartlets with Smoked Chicken, Black Olives & Pesto, Roasted Potatoes with Onion Marmalade and Crème Fraiche 
Starter: Gateau of Avocado and Prawns, Marie Rose Sauce and Garden Leaves
Bread: Wheat bread, raisin rolls, sesame seeded rolls, white rolls, caraway rolls, red pepper rolls. 
Soup:  and Corriander with Corriander Crème Fraiche
Sorbet: Celebration Champagne
Main Course Option #1 - Meat: Seared Fillet of Irish Beef served medium, braised shallot, root vegetable purée, fondant potato, brandy and Madagascar green peppercorn sauce.
Main Course Option #2 - Fish:  Grilled Irish Salmon, Salad of Fennel marinated in Lemon, Baby Spinach, Vierge Dressing
Side Dishes: Roast Baby Potatoes, and Roast carrots, onions, parsnip, and turnip.
Dessert: Pavlova with Fresh Fruit, Strawberry Purée, Chantilly Cream
Petits Fours Assortment: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles. 
Evening Buffet – Bacon Butties, Vegetable Spring Rolls, Cocktail Sausages.