A Fall Business Luncheon at My Farm
Early fall is such a nice time to entertain at home.
The day I hosted a special breakfast meeting for a potential business partner, I also hosted an important luncheon for our business Home division executive team - al fresco. My friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin from PS Tailored Events, and I, collaborated on the delicious menu for 10, which included an endive salad with gorgonzola, poached pears, and pecans; penne rigate with roasted tomatoes, eggplant and capers; and for dessert, apple tarte tatin with creme fraiche.
Enjoy these photos - I hope they don’t make you too hungry.
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- The most time consuming part of cooking a dish is the preparation – having all the ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. Here, Chef Pierre has gathered the cut olives, capers, crushed garlic, and roasted tomatoes together for the pasta.
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- We are also using eggplants from my garden. I love when we can use produce that is freshly picked right here at my Bedford, New York farm.
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- The eggplants are sliced into small pieces and then oven roasted until tender with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
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- Meanwhile, Chef Pierre works on the dessert. We decided on an apple tart tatin using a combination of fresh apples from my trees. The apples are peeled, quartered, and cooked down with sugar until they are amber brown in color.
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- Caramel sauce is also made in another saucepan with butter and sugar.
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- We decided to make individual servings, so the apples are packed tightly into silicone muffin pans and cooked until firm.
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- This is what the apples look like after baking – they are turned out onto a sheet pan, so perfectly browned.
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- The puffed pastry is also cut and baked in the oven. These will be the bases for the tartes.
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- Look how gorgeous they are after they’re removed from the oven. Puff pastry is a light and flaky pastry made from a laminated dough, or dough that is made by alternating layers of butter and dough. One can see the layers here. The only ingredients used to make puff pastry are butter, salt, water, and flour — no leavening agents are required.
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- Chef Pierre and Chef Moises also poach pears for the salad. Poaching is gentle, stove-top cooking. These pears are slowly poached until tender – about 20 minutes.
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- The endives and radicchio are cut, the lemon vinaigrette dressing is made, and all the ingredients are brought into my Winter House kitchen about an hour before serving.
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- Chefs Pierre and Moises stop for a quick photo in my kitchen. I’ve known Chef Pierre for years – we have collaborated together for many, many meals.
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- I decided to serve lunch outside in the courtyard behind my Winter House. Here, I planted Australian Brush Cherry topiaries in large containers that surround an antique faux bois gazebo I acquired years ago.
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- The table was set with pumpkins and light colored plates and napkins.
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- Chef Pierre begins to construct the salads. First, a bed of frisee. Frisée, also known as curly endive in the UK, is a frizzy salad green of the chicory family along with endive, escarole, and radicchio. Frisee is a tousled head of lacy ruffles, sprouting from a pale yellow core.
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- The poached pears are drained and ready to be sliced for the salad.
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- Here, the endive, raddichio, and pear slices are stacked perfectly.
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- And then pieces of Gorgonzola, pecans and a drizzle of dressing finish off the salad.
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- Chef Pierre begins plating the pasta puttanesca. Puttanesca is an Italian pasta dish invented in Naples in the mid-20th century and made typically with tomatoes, olive oil, olives, capers, and garlic. This is our rendition of the classic dish served with penne rigate #64 made with Tuscan wheat.
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- The pasta is topped with sprigs of green and purple basil, also from my garden.
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- And for dessert, Chef Pierre plates a scoop of creme fraiche topped with mint from my garden. A smear of creme fraiche on the side will keep the tart tatin gently in place.
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- A lovely dessert to end our delicious meal. It was a great lunch and a very productive gathering. What are you serving at your next luncheon? Share your menus with me in the section below.
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