by White Point’s Executive Chef Alan Crosby

The time has finally come, with only 7 weeks ‘til we re-open, it is menu time.

It’s been difficult sweating through a fantastic sunny summer, trying to plan for November menus.  Now that the days are shorter and it’s cooling off a little, I can see my way planning for cozy winter meals.

With a preliminary draft in hand, then next step was to try and test some of our new items…but we haven’t got a kitchen. 
So what do you do?  Enlist a few friends, a willing spouse, open some wine and cook at home.

Last Friday night was spent with my wife Jacqueline, our good friend/camping buddy Kelly and Ocean Spa therapist/travelling masseuse Christine. 
With a request for honest feedback we set out to try four new items which may or may not make the final cut. 

“Creamed Lobster on Toast” most agreed apples and apple brandy trumped double smoked bacon and lobster mushrooms as add ins. 

 Grilled salmon with savoy cabbage, double smoked bacon, sherry and thyme … perfect as written. 

Rigatoni with preserved lemon, roast chicken and charred cherry tomatoes.  All liked the addition of pesto and Kelley noted that the tomatoes were too “squirty” so those are getting cut (literally) and oven dried. 

Ricards dark chocolate cake with espresso ganache wasn’t dense enough so that one is going back to the drawing board.

We’ll start all over again this week.  Roast chicken and rosemary mac and cheese, “Pot Roast”, crab crusted haddock …  I can’t till the new pizza oven is in.   I just need to find some more friends! 

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2012 at 4:54 am and is filed under A New Chapter Begins - White Point working towards re-opening Fall 2012, Chef's Magic & Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.