Restaurant Liberty Grove
Usuallly I don't do this, but for this post I introducing a guest writer...Lil. Now because this post is dedicated to putting on a surprise for Lil (and Maz), rather than me describing how I planned the surprise (with invaluable help from JB as he prepared the entree and mains). Some background information about what is about to happen...inspired after watching Ratoulee (the movie about the French chef rat) I told JB of my idea of cooking a fine dining 3 course meal for the gals...namely Lil and Maz. With JB being a cook/chef, he naturally agreed even adding some bits of flair to the 'fine dining' meal (see photos) at where else, but our house at Liberty Grove! The date was set for Sunday 16 September 2007.
As promised, Restaurant Liberty Grove deserves a post of its own.The night started with Maz and I being sent upstairs so that the boys can finish creating their dinner. Suddenly we heard "Dinner is ready!". I was already impressed that the boys had prepare dinner in time. Earlier in the day Darren asked to borrow table cloth from Maz, so I knew the boys were going to imitate a restaurant setting, but imagine our shock when we were greeted on the bottom of the stairs with JB in a black waiter's attire holding a menu welcoming us "madams" to Restaurant Liberty Grove.
"Oh my god" was said a couple of times as we turned into the 'restaurant' area. Then an image I will never forget. There Darren was in a complete chef's uniform including a professional chef's hat.
I couldn't stop laughing and spent a couple of minutes on the ground rolling around. Darren was trying to pull me up, but the more I looked at him the more I couldn't stop (Darren: Yes, I remember this...I was wondering if we were going to get to the dinner table :P haha, Lil's expression when she saw me was priceless...and so was her reaction afterwards)
As we finally composed ourselves, Darren filled our glasses with our favourite drinks that he researched from me earlier in the day. Maz had her Limonatta and I had my favourite sparkling mineral water. I taught Darren to put his hand behind his back like a real waiter and he did that for the rest of the night. Maz and I tried to decipher all the fancy words used in our printed menu, but I will explain what was so meticulously planned and prepared for us in my wording:
Mains: Pork belly roasted with stuffing served with grilled Fennel and Pear on a bed of mash parship - this dish was truly amazing. 
The pork belly was so tasty, the meat was so tender and the cracking was so crispy.
Burton and up there with Oscillate Wildly. I also loved the parship mash, it was so sweet and went so well with the savoury flavours of the pork.Dessert: Waifers and Vanilla Ice Cream served with raspberries and honey parfait sauce - my baby's baby.
Darren had put so much thought and effort in presentation. It looked so pretty and appetising. I'm not usually a sweets person but I loved every bite of it.
I might be accused of being bias but seeing food expert Maz polish it off as well meant it was definitely a YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM.In between all the courses, there was of course the usual photo taking Asian style, laughs and more attempts of intrepreting the menu.
But something happened between main and dessert. Must be a reaction to something we ate, but Maz and I got rowdy. One minute we were sitting admiring the setting, the next minute we were standing on the chairs belting out our lungs to the tunes of Eternal Flame, Aerosmith and You're Beautiful! Darren and JB stood in the kitchen dumbfounded and shaking their heads. A couple of statements "oh no... that's shocking... this is a proper restaurant..." and threats of being kicked out was to no avail.
Maz and I were acting like little kids, performing for the camera.Talk about performing for the camera, we made a video for JY as it was his birthday and he's recently moved to the UK . We had a full story line.
Maz is taking JY out for dinner for his birthday, they are greated by a waiter and the chef presents them a menu, then we all sing happy birthday to him and Maz blows out the candles on his behalf. Sounds complicated with different angles, switching scenes, lots of dialogue; but we're all professionals. One take was all we needed.JY later wrote us a thank you email and it made it all worthwhile and gratifying; his note also made me really miss our awesome foursome days. Wish he was at the dinner. I can imagine him doing some JT and 80's dance moves while Maz and I sang. Haha...
After dinner we watched a comedy "Monster in Law". It's about how a recently sacked mother is clinging onto her son. The son meets a girl and wants to marry her. The mother then goes through all these schemes to break them up (even almost killing her). It was so funny, light hearted. Perfect movie for a Sunday night. Then it was home time for some rest for a brand new week. Disclaimer: Despite the photographs, it was really JB who cooked the important dishes (the entree and mains)...so kudos (credit) must go to him for preparing and cooking such a delicious main course (he really spent lots of time and effort preparing it the night before)...making this fine dining dinner party a success! My role was more of a waiter, pastry chef (dessert maker) and restaurant manager (organising the fancy stuff and sending out the official "invites") haha.. a possible 2nd career after law??? :P
Credit must also be given to my Lil for having written up an excellent post, I think its quite an interesting way, describing an event from another person's (the person you are intending to surprise) perspective. In fact, as you will see in a future post (to be updated)...Restaurant Liberty Grove is going to be fully operational haha.. :). So anyway it was a good night for all (and we were awarded our 'one chefs hat' award by our two distinguished judges...even though they both stood on our chairs to sing :P haha) and what made it even more memorable was that the effort was there and well the gals played along with us (plus the food was excellent and so delectible as you can see from above...3 courses for next to nothing!).
posted by Darren at
11:18 AM
0 comment(s):
Post a comment
<< Home