I hate that I was not able to take photos during our food tasting with Chef Mike of The Red Chef. Aphat was not able to make the meeting as he had to attend to an event but he carefully selected the food to be served to us.
In my previous post about them, these items were part of the proposed menu for us:
Potato-Broccoli Soup
Green Arugula Salad with Mango Vinaigrette, Raspberry-Strawberry and Caesar's Dressings
Pot Roast Beef with mashed potato
Iberian Chicken
Hickory BBQ Ribs OR Baked Salmon with Four Cheeses
The FT (food tasting) itself was unlike any group FT that is so popular with a lot of caterers now, where they serve a lot of couples, even families. For us, it was just the three of us, plus Chef Mike. This way, he is able to explain all the dishes, answer our queries and address all our concerns. You will really feel the “alaga” and personalized service this way. We discussed specifics of the wedding—like how we planned to have cocktails prior to actual dinner, and the kind of service we expected from their waiters. In hindsight, I think the bridezilla in me was showing as I was really drilling down to details on the kind of plates, utensils and chargers to use, to the number of waiters and staff, to the crew meals, etc. HAHAHA. I should have not gone there yet, as this was only the first food tasting. This wasn’t the detailing by any means.
We started with the DIP TRIO, as appetizer. Three kinds of dip were served, together with toasted garlic bruschetta. One is chicken liver pate, second is the three-cheese dip and the last was tomato salsa. Can I just say that I love pate, dips and nibbles and theirs is my favorite since time immemorial? I’d like to say I’m a little snobbish about that, but hell yeah. They make the best dips ever!
Moving on, we went straight to soup, which was served in soup shot cups (or bowls?). We were asking why it was small. To this, Chef Mike was explaining, the soup was meant to be an appetizer only, not something to fill them up. We had a full course of main entrees that will satisfy their appetites. To be honest, I was not really looking forward to tasting the soup—Potato Broccoli—how can this WOW us? It was just soup. But I was wrong. It was quite tasty, I wanted more once when I finished mine! The creamy soup base had the thick consistency from the potatoes and the infusion of broccoli (and I think a hint of cheese) was just perfect. You can really feel the broccoli bits against your tongue. It adds a nice texture and flavor to the otherwise plain and creamy soup.
The main courses served to us were Pot Roast Beef with Mashed Potato, Baked Fish with Four Cheeses and Baked Herbed Chicken (in place of Iberian Chicken).
I am not a food blogger—so I cannot ever describe nor will I even try to give a mouthful of how good everything was. It wasn’t too much flavor nor was anything bland. Everything was cooked perfectly. I remember E loving the chicken a lot, I was really into the fish and my mom was raving about the beef. All in all, they all fit together.
After the main courses, we moved on to dessert, which were just as superb—not the usual panacotta or cake. It’s like they take these usual food items and take it to another level or give it a flavor you will not think over and yet, they just send your taste buds to an adventure you will not forget in a while.
Upon finishing up, Chef Mike showed us photos of the latest events they had, mostly corporate in nature. Then, he showed us photos of some weddings they catered to and as always, their setup is beautiful! I was asking him why they don’t promote themselves more or attend wedding fairs, he was saying, the word of mouth itself is huge enough for them to cater to a lot of events. He says the money spent in marketing automatically shifts up the pricing of their food and services—which they did not want.
We will have our final food tasting sometime April or early May so that we get to finalize all the food choices, and dig down to more details than I have already mentioned earlier. I know in my heart our guests will enjoy the dinner Red Chef will be preparing for them.