One Thing Led To Another-itis

Does this ever happen to you? You make a list; you have the best of intentions but get derailed by the smallest of things, a phone call, a sunny day, something shiny?


I so meant to write you over the winter but I am guilty of One Thing Led To Another-itis. A thoroughly relaxing vacation set the tone that I could not escape from and took the last few months to catch up with friends, museum hop, stroll the NYBotanical Gardens Orchid Exhibit, be with family and revamp my catering menus. Not having much of a winter here in NY had me gardening in February and March and I can use the garden as a daily diversion, but I already see that the lack of rain and snow is going to lead to a tough year in the vegetable patch.

I am not complaining, this time off has been rejuvenating and I frankly needed it. Looks like 2012 is going to be a terrific year for business, and I have restaffed and revamped and now we are chomping at the bit. The first event of the spring season had us back at where my past post put us, my favorite treasure, The Katonah Museum of Art.

Rising Dragon: Contemporary Chinese Photography is the exhibit. We were busy doing our do but I was listening to the docent tell the gathering that the introduction of the internet into China in 1997 unlocked the world to a waiting populace who were eager for expression. The artists embraced technology and quickly came up to speed with techniques and advances, meeting, and in some instances surpassing, what is happening in this art form globally.

This exhibit ironically related to Walter Wick exhibit we did back at the end of January at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic, an artist who works in this modern form of photography that creates scenes, manipulates images with the resulting work that is more real than reality while becoming dream like in its intensity.

The Walter Wick exhibit was the first time I actually realized what I was looking at in this new digital form of expression and was fortunate to speak with the artists involved in the model and scene making and Walter Wick himself. Learning about the explosion of art coming from China and realizing how a suppressed society does not have an outlet to create, the toll that takes on the individual as well as the society was a new thought for me. With Walter Wick, like the title suggests, I felt like someone had opened my childhood mind’s attic, my memories of stories, toys, of play. With Rising Dragon I could not escape the fantasy; you could literally see the mind unleashed. Contemporary art is always exciting. Love it or hate it, it reflects the world and its current state. To the nay sayers I want to remind them that many of the artist’s works considered classic now were hated, even despised, at the time they were made. Contemporary art is, in many ways, seeing the future.

Speaking of future, it's sunny out, the lake is sparkling and the phone is ringing...I smell diversion....

The Katonah Museum- Katonah, NY
http://www.katonahmuseum.org/
Rising Dragon: Contemporary Chinese Photography
March 25 - September 2, 2012

The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
http://brucemuseum.org/
Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic
January 28, 2012 - April 21, 2012

NY NY at the Katonah Museum of Art. So nice we went back thrice.

This has been an amazing season here at CBFF and one of my biggest pleasures has been catering at the jewel box that is the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY. Regular readers have seen numerous posts of our work there and due to the laser vision of the curators every exhibit is fresh and always exciting.

This exhibit had us there for two corporate events, one for architects in black tie; they looked so very smooth, so very New York, as well as one for BNY/Mellon’s Wealth Management Group. The third event was a “Feast Your Eyes” luncheon which brings in the modern version of ladies who lunch. Busy women, working women, philanthropic women, women who need a brief respite from their hectic lives to eat a delicious lunch and take a brief tour to refuel their souls so they can carry on during this hectic time of year for women everywhere. (Tell me, would ANY holiday happen without us?)

A few of the ladies at Feast Your Eyes commented on the salad dressing which is my spin on Julia Child's Basic Vinaigrette. So here it is along with variations and suggestions and way too much to say.  And by the way...giving the gift of membership is a wonderful thing to do for both the recipient and this museum....  Just a suggestion, the link is at the end of the post!

BASIC VINAIGRETTE


Learning the 3 to 1 rule of vinaigrette is really all you need to know, the rest is window dressing!

NOTE: I make enough dressing to store in a jar in the refrigerator for easy use. The amounts are never measured with standard devices but rather by eye and hand. I truly encourage you to do the same. The tactile relation between food and cook is, in my opinion, essential to truly good cooking.

Equipment Needed:

• Food Processor or Hand Held Immersion Blender

Ingredients:

• ½ onion or about ½ cup chopped
• ½ cup of good Sherry Vinegar
• 1 ¼ - 1 ½ cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I use a 2/3, 1/3 mix of good olive oil (2/3) and outstanding olive oil (1/3)
• Heaping Tbs. of Dijon Mustard
• 1 tsp. Kosher Salt- or to taste
• ½ tsp. Freshly Ground Black Pepper- or to taste
• 1 – 2 TBS. Spike*

*a blend of dried, pulverized vegetables sold in health food stores since 1925.

1. In food processor, puree onion.
2. Add Dijon and all dry spices
3. Add Vinegar
4. Slowly add oil.
5. Taste and adjust. Try to achieve a true balance of tastes, where neither the vinegar nor the oil stands out.
6. Transfer to a jar, shake well before using and sometimes I find it helpful to go into the jar with a spoon so the onion and dried seasonings are evenly distributed

VARITATIONS ON THE THEME.

1. You can switch out the vinegars to be ANY vinegar to complement your menu, the season or preferences.
2. Adding a squeeze of citrus or a rasp of the citrus zest can brighten the dressing.
3. Grain mustard… This change I particularly like with heartier greens like Kale and Spinach.
4. Herbs! Any and all work but will shorten the lifespan in the frig
5. Electric went out? (Oh please, here in the Northeast that is becoming commonplace so it’s back to learning how Grandma did it!) Just use a jar to shake it all up in. Makes the 3 to 1 ratio easy to determine and grate your onion in, or leave it out. There is always the bowl and whisk too…but I’m lazy!

Source:  Julia Childs Matering the Art of French Cooking Volume 1  Page 94

http://www.katonahmuseum.org/

Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy at the Katonah Museum of Art

We are bracing ourselves here in New York for Hurricane Irene; I confess that I LOVE a good storm, I give thanks that we have no brides, hostesses, museums, corporate clients and guests to worry about traveling in the rain and wind this weekend. With the unrelenting news coverage, knowing how much of our area is covered with coastline and that summer has everyone’s beach home open and in full swing I think that we forget how much work is involved with battening down the gems of our region…the museums, outdoor sculpture exhibits (thinking StormKing here- what Do they DO?), zoos, the botanical gardens… All the while these folks need to attend to their own properties.

Two week ago, under yet another threatening sky, we were the caterer for the August Second Saturday gathering at the Katonah Museum of Art. This is a cocktail party that utilizes the museums beautiful sculpture garden and brings the community in to enjoy the museum, an interactive art experience, music and food during the summer months. We have fun with coordinating our displays and passing trays to the exhibit and in the past the inspiration came easy. Surrealism and food. Aside from Dali’s melting landscapes I was at a loss and melting food…in August it happens anyway…this was going to be a tricky one.

The moment of inspiration came at the awe inspiring Alexander McQueen exhibit. The exhibit which proved his genius and that his collections were so much more than clothes had a headdress which dripped down the head of the wearer, and that coalesced with Joseph Wheelwright’s Tree Figures that are on the south lawn and sculpture garden.

We debuted one of the head’s for the winners of our donated auction item, a catered cocktail party for 10 in the museums center hall, and then to the crowd of 100 for Second Saturday. Much to my delight the Bedford Record placed a photo of one of the heads on their front page and while no credit was given to our company, I did find it flattering. Art was my first desire but the need to make a living trumped that and through a winding road of trial and error I found my way into the culinary arts and used that as my medium.

Maybe it’s the rain that has begun to fall that is making me more introspective but I have found “The Process” that creative people use for inspiration is really the foundation for all good decisions. Take in all information, use all your senses, try not to think too hard on a decision and let these influences come together in an organic fashion. I am so looking forward to this next phase of my life where I can play inside of art again, thank you Katonah Museum!

http://www.katonahmuseum.org/exhibitions/

Lichtenstein at the Katonah Museum of Art

It was our privilege to be asked back to the Katonah Museum of Art for the premier cocktail party for the opening of the exhibit called Lichtenstein in Progress featuring the creative process of artist Roy Lichtenstein from sketches to painting which the New York Times review said "is a fascinating and engrossing show providing a rare glimpse of the pop artist's private working methods...."

This is a jewel of a museum. Easy to get to, always changing, always relevant and one of my favorite places to frequent for inspiration. The sculpture garden is a place to pause and refresh one’s self on the way from here to there. Located just off 684 in Katonah it seems to be always en route for myself and my many clients.

Please stop by this treasure, especially in these hard times when the arts need us the most.

http://www.katonahmuseum.org/