The Pavlova Problem

The majority of my day again today was spent constructing pavlovas – another 230 of them for another large wedding tonight. I really don’t mind this at all, but then again, this is only my third or so time doing them. I just don’t like how the room I work in is always pretty chilly – as it needs to be with all the whipped cream and fresh fruit on the pavlovas. 

Here are a few things about pavlovas though. The meringue base is baked in advance, obviously, and most of the fruit is sliced in advance and kept in the fridge as well, which actually helps to draw the moisture out of the fruit so it doesn’t bleed into the whipped cream. The melon, pineapple, mango, and plum is all done in advance. However, as berries have a short shelf life, the blueberries strawberries, and kiwi need to be prepped the morning of. Blueberries are easy – just wash them, and strawberries just need to be halved or quartered and washed as well. Kiwi frustrates me – or at least the kiwi we get. They always end up being too ripe, making them difficult to slice thinly enough, and they turn to mush. Sometimes the mango is too ripe and slippery too, but if not ripe enough, there is no flavor to it. And we never seem to have extras around! That is the issue with pavlovas – I love the idea and I think they are really pretty, but when you are making over two hundred of them, it is hard to make them consistent and identical. Usually they are very close in size, and we use the same recipe each time, but the fruit can vary greatly! It will vary in shape, size, color, taste, and texture depending upon the season, ripeness, and how it was cut and prepared. I cannot get a lot of slices that are the exact same size from one pineapple, or a plum – the ends will be smaller than the middle. If you really want to make the pavlovas identical, you will need to buy a lot of fruit and waste (or repurpose) a lot of fruit, and that means a lot of money. 

After the pavlovas, I helped out with the canapés for today, then headed over to the marquee for the usual wedding service. It was another large wedding, but didn’t seem as stressful this time, except for some strange requests from the bride (gluten-free bread and canapés only, nothing else had to be gluten-free, soya milk available at all times, and absolutely no coriander or Chilean wine to be served, as the bride is allergic). What was annoying was the fact that the speeches got moved from being during canapés to being right before dinner, because they moved from outside to indoors due to the weather. I’m not sure why that caused the time to change too, but there were six speeches and they were all long, lasting much longer than the anticipated forty minutes, making dinner later and causing us to have to wait again.

Some of the cupcakes the couple provided to be served with the evening buffet.

Here is tonight’s menu:
Canapés: Spiced Chicken Kebabs, Filo Tartlets with Smoked Duck, black olives, and pesto, Vegetable Spring Rolls with sweet chili sauce, Breaded Mozzarella sticks, Smoked Salmon Blinis with Dill Crème Fraiche, Tomato and Basil Crustini 
Starter: Organic Goat’s Cheese Parfait, Ratatouille Chutney, Basil Pesto, Balsamic and Sherry Reduction
Bread: Wheat bread, raisin rolls, sesame seeded rolls, white rolls, caraway rolls, red pepper rolls
Soup:  Vegetable Broth
Sorbet: Champagne
Main Course Option #1 – Beef:  Rib-Eye Steak cooked medium, fondant potato, braised shallot, celeriac purée, rich red wine jus
Main Course Option #2 – Fish: Grilled 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, Chantilly Cream, and Strawberry Purée
Petits Fours Assortment: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles. 
Evening Buffet: Bacon Butties, Chip Cones, Cheesecake, Cupcakes