Jonny and I after hours of negotiations
About a month ago I was relaxing with a friend of mine named Jonathan over a long late summer weekend, drinking Korean beers that taste enormously like Miller High Life and enjoying the lack of breeze. We were sitting in my back yard, watching my dog viciously lie in the sun and while talking about nonsense we stumbled into a conversation about dinner and theater.
We were speaking about our plans for the fall and some of the events that we were working on. I explained about the dinner on the first of November and the Autumnal Harvest and Pig roasting extravaganza in October, while Jonathan went on to explain about his plans for acting and writing throughout the fall.
Sometime around the middle of the afternoon it occurred to us that we had nothing yet planned for September and with a little bit of mental wrestling we discovered that there were some dishes that need to be tired and some of his plays that needed to be worked on. It was in that moment that we decided to take a stab at Dinner Theatre.
We wanted a lounge feel, with smoke and cocktails. Jonny thought it important to include some multimedia in the event and decided that he would like to bring in a dance performance as well as the thespian display. I felt strongly about cooking for each act and leaving dessert for the after whisky. What we eventually came up with, through the great help of our friends was this night of Dinner Theatre:
Menu:
Snacks: Candied Bacon, Crisp Garbanzos and Spiced Nuts
1. Dark Roux Sausage Étouffée with Caramelized Onions and Pega
2. Black Tempura Prawns in Green Curry Custard with Key Lime and Cilantro
3. Sweet Braised Short Rib, Country Pâté Brulée over a Horseradish demi-glace with Alsatian Munster whipped fondue, Enoki mushroom and quail yolk purses and charred Japanese scallions
4. Tobacco Crisps with Coffee crème and whisky dipping sauce
5. Cigar – Dominican Metropolitan
Menu created with Daniel Castaño and Eugene Edele.
Executed with Daniel Castaño, Eugene Edele and Cathy Erway; and special thanks to Kristen Hager, Kirsten Larson, Nora Sherman and Leah Viens-Gordon for all of their help in coordination and execution.
Wines and Spirits by Jesse Salazar:
Bodegas Llopart 2005 Rose Brut Reserva Cava
Wingut Hirsch 2006 Riesling Gaisberg
Scholum Project 2007 Naucratis Lost Slough Vineyard
Elmer T Lee Single Barrel – Buffalo Trace
With performances of:
“The Confidence Man” adapted from Herman Melville’s novel by Ben Rose and Jonathan Cristaldi and performed by Jonny Cigar and Abraham Danz.
“Awakening” choreographed by Ori Flomin and performed by Amanda Wells and Ori Flomin
“Kammerspiel!” Written, directed and performed by Jonny Cigar while featuring: Abraham Danz, Phoebe Oglesbee, Zach Bernstein and Another Girl.
Video Installation by Tyler Coburn www.tylercoburn.com
Photos by:
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
Christine Wells © 2008 http://christinekwells.blogspot.com/
This is a simple snack that was common place in my childhood in many different forms. Here we just fried the canned Garbanzo beans until crisp and then tossed them with coriander, cumin, cayenne, Balinese long peppers and dried lemon rind. Citrus juice to flavor.
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
Gratuitous sausage. These cubes were shaped for the Étouffée. The shape held well, our next goal is to get casing to fit the outside. I imagine it shaped like a wrapped present.
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
Due to some dietary restrictions in the audience we were able to provide the Étouffée in both a sausage and more traditional shrimp versions.
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
A collection of black batter dipped shrimp.
This was just a standard tempura batter that we added shrimp brains and sepia for additional flavor and color. After we had it balanced and seasoned we bottled it and carbonated it to 50 psi to too make the batter extra light and crisp. The coating was airy and light and the brains gave the crisp a full flavor.
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
Short Ribs with a liberal amount of pâté
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
Short Ribs being caramelized
Tim Ireland © 2008
www.irelandstudios.com
This is a shot of the short ribs from our test kitchen the Sunday before the performance. Here we exchange the Obrato for Phyllo dough.
Christine Wells © 2008 http://christinekwells.blogspot.com/
We eventually settled with Enoki and Slow Poach Quail Egg wrapped in soy wrapper and flashed fried crisp and awaiting steak
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
I know it might seem obvious in this setting and maybe even trite being that the performers name is Jonny Cigar but we have been working on this Coffee and Cigarettes style dessert all summer and this iteration seems to work well. With crisp cookies and Cathy’s indulgent Sanka Cream custard the cookies we absolutely delightful on their own but with a dip in the whisky syrup everything became divine.
Tim Ireland © 2008 www.irelandstudios.com
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