November 21, 1999 - Edited from
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Maria Gallagher
The party invitation, illustrated with a turbaned young man riding an elephant through a colorful Indian bazaar, hinted that hosts Julie Van de Graf and Jonathon Burke were about to embark on an exotic journey.
Only when guests called to RSVP did they discover that the journey had already begun, with Van De Graaf making some major midlife decisions: The 44-year-old owner of the Pink Rose Pastry Shop recently sold the business she founded 18 years ago, and the Fitler Square house she spent 10 years renovating is up for sale.
Originally from North Jersey, Van de Graf came to Philadelphia to study textiles at Philadelphia College of Art, but found herself drawn to the creative side of the food business while working as a waitress. After graduating, she took a job as a pastry apprentice at the now-shuttered Conversation tearoom on Pine Street near 17th. To supplement her income, she baked cakes and pastries at home and soled them to gourmet grocers, restaurants and caterers.
Van de Graaf had never hosted a party at home until this one, and she wanted to hire a caterer so she could spend some time with the friends she will leave behind. She called Peachtree & Ward and asked if a party could be planned and executed with just three weeks' notice.
The company prefers at least two months notice, but in Van de Graaf's case, an exception was made because she is a longtime friend of Jon & Lori Weinrott, the owners of Peachtree & Ward.
Jon Weinrott made a site visit and, with the detail-minded Julie, planned a 12-course menu of unusual dishes in small potions, with many of them to be served on Van de Graaf's own beloved collection of mismatched china. Although desserts would not be a focal point, Weinrott encouraged Van de Graaf to make something in addition to what Peachtree would provide. When he left, he had one lingering concern: The house was small, even for a party of just 30 guests. Guests would need to be spread among the living room, kitchen, one upstairs room and the garden, weather permitting. A field kitchen would be set up in the basement, where steps would present a challenge to the serving staff.
By the following Monday, the menu concept had changed.
"It just seemed untenable for the space, in terms of the amount of staff needed to execute it right," he said. There were other considerations: "For 30 people, we would need 360 plates for 12 courses."
The revised plan called for a well-edited selection of butlered hors d'oeuvres, a spread of stationary hors d'oeuvres on the second floor, and for the main courses and desserts to be presented buffet-style in the living room. Coffee and tea would be offered in the kitchen. Two self-service bars, with wine and beer, would be set up in the garden and on the second floor.
Peachtree chef Stephen Rudloff, sales manager Brett Brasler, and servers Joe Stewart and Jan Fahs arrived three hours before the party to begin assembling the basement kitchen, which consisted of two convection ovens, two butane fueled food warmers, two portable refrigeration units, an ice chest, two large folding tables, and a cutting board.
Then there was the food itself - prepared earlier in the day at Peachtree's kitchen - plus linens, glassware, additional china, utensils, silver chafing dishes and coffee pots, all lugged down the basement stairs. Refrigeration units, weighing nearly 100 pounds each when full, were the toughest to haul.
"We're used to doing physical things," Fahs said with a shrug. She said that one of Peachtree's steadiest Center City client's has a four-story spiral staircase.
"Sometimes we work in kitchens that are better equipped than our own," said Rudloff, who was previously a banquet chef at Brasserie Perrier and at the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia.
While Rudloff put the finishing touches on the hors d'oeuvres, Fahs and Stewart set up the two bars, stocked with three white wines and three red wines matched to the food by Greg Moore of Moore Brothers, the Pennsauken specialty wine shop. Moore had a faxed copy of the menu.
In the fence-enclosed garden, where the night air was brisk enough to require sweaters but not coats, the host lighted dozens of votive candles - some suspended from hangers, some nestled in the lush shrubbery, some grouped on the bar. In a nod to the Pink Rose, some were set into foil cupcake wrappers. With no artificial lighting, the effect of the candles was magical, like stars brought down to earth. And although the garden had no blooms on this November weekend, the scented candles created the illusion of a space filled with invisible flowers.
Van de Graaf's desserts were done ahead. To carry out the journey theme, she made spice cookies cut into the shape of elephants, using cookie cutters she found at Fante's. She also made a batch of tiny, intensely rich cocoa-dusted chocolate truffles.
"I haven't baked at home since I had the business, so it was fun doing this," she said. Pink Rose chef Robert Amoo, who has stayed on with the new owners, was coming with a pear tart and a chocolate decadence cake.
Jon and Lori Weinrott were among the first arrivals. Tonight they were guests, but Jon was happy to explain the flourishes that went into some of the dishes. The Vietnamese lobster spring rolls, wrapped tightly with sheer rice paper and garnished with lobster claw meat neatly removed from the shell, were surrounded by zucchini, carrots and yellow squash cut to the size of small peas.
Weinrott said full-size vegetables were cooked just enough to soften them, shocked in cold water to hold their color, then cut with a small tool that resembles a miniscule ice cream scoop. The sweet-sour dipping sauce, made with nuoc mam plum sauce, was offered in white porcelain sake cups.
"That's the beauty of a little party," Lori Weinrott said.
The vegetable stack, which can be served as an appetizer or entrée, was a perfect muli-layer square of zucchini, yellow squash, spinach, and eggplant, topped with a ruff of the tiniest of baby greens dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette.
At 7:30, Van de Graf, reappeared transformed, wearing wide-leg trousers in a silky brown fabric and a halter top under a brown see-through blouse trimmed in velvet.
"Rather than this being an end party, its a continuation," Van de Graaf tells them. "I wanted to tell everyone, "You're my friends. It's just another part of the journey."
Menu
- Butlered hors d'oeuvres: "Bundles of Joy" - crepes filled with golden caviar, Vietnamese lobster rolls with pearled vegetables and sweet & sour dipping sauce, taro shrimp cakes with lemongrass on sugar cane skewers
- Stationary hors d'oeuvres: Cheese to include reblochon, huntsman cheddar-blue, pienza, brie; duck pate, fresh figs and melon cubes wrapped with prosciutto
- Buffet: Grilled vegetable stack with micro-greens, balsalmico and tomato-basil oil, crab-mango salad; artichoke terrine with tomato coulis, seared diver scallops
- Desserts: Savarin soaked with pineapple-rum sauce; chocolate decadence cake, pear tart; elephant spice cookies; chocolate truffles
- Beer: Chimay Belgian Ale
- Red Wines: Domaine Sorin, Cotes de Provence; Domaine de Deurre, Cuvee Saint Maurice, Cotes du Rhone.
- White Wines: Chateau des Hospitaliers, Coteaux de Languedoc, Chateau Belingard Bergerac Sec.
TIMELINE:
Two weeks before
Peachtree & Ward visits house for walk through, initial menu planning
One week before
Menu and party concept are revised
Day of Party, before 3 pm
Hors d'oeuvres, main courses and dessert prepared in caterer's kitchen
Three hours before
Caterer arrives. Field kitchen assembled in basement
Two hours before
Host builds fire in fireplace, hostess arranges fresh flowers
One hour before
Bars set up, last hors d'oeuvres assembled, soup warmed
7:30 pm
Guests arrive, hors d'oeuvres served
8:30
Main courses heated, plated and arranged on buffet
10 pm
Desserts and coffee served
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