Ted Grady entertains for a living as an owner of a Chicago catering firm. But the St. Louis native, who started at the caterer as a waiter, moved up to become its event planner and bought the firm with a partner in June, also loves to entertain for pleasure. One major glitch, however, is that his busy work schedule doesn’t leave much time for food fun. Second glitch: Many of his close friends are also in the hospitality business, and work similarly long hours and nights. So they, too, are pressed for time when they can get together as guests or hosts for one another.
Two years ago, Grady dreamed up the perfect solution to his and his friends’ quandary. He assembled a loosely organized group of 16 or so friends who are involved in the hospitality industry, such as Leslie Engdahl, an event planner, and Jimmi Wilson, a sous-chef, both at Grady’s J&L catering business; his business partner, Kevin Kelly, who is executive chef; Quynh Nguyen, a hostess at Pasteur restaurant in Chicago; Sumi Mukoyama, a sales rep who moonlights as a chef; and Rashed Islam, a sommelier at Pasteur. In spite of their ties to the food world and their shared love of entertaining, only Islam was very educated about wine. He agreed to be their mentor.
They were eager to learn. “We decided we could get together for a great meal, have a good time, try new recipes and learn about wine,” says Grady. “It’s like a wine course for dummies,” he quips. “It gives us a chance to try new ones, discuss them and learn from the experience.”
After a few tries, the group members also found their idea also has business applications. “We try two wines with every course, and sometimes an economical wine turns out to be a better choice than a pricey one. My clients will reap the benefits of this knowledge,” Grady explains.
Each monthly meeting of the club also becomes a gastronomic extravaganza that results from a group effort. Grady starts the ball rolling by thinking up a tentative menu and picking a date. He calls everyone in the group to see who’s available on that night. On any given date, 7 to 10 members will be free. They phone and e-mail back and forth about what to serve, which wines to try and who will make or buy what.
The dinner is usually held at Grady’s Rogers Park home, though other members have hosted the evenings, as have the former owners of J&L, John Chavez and Lisa Gershenson, who own La Boccaria, a gourmet takeout food shop. Everyone usually contributes to the meal in some way, by making a course, bringing a wine or taking over cooking duties at the dinner, which sometimes becomes a lunch due to schedules and work commitments.
A dinner the club held on a recent Sunday afternoon and evening was typical. Grady picked the date, thought of grilled lamb chops, grilled seasonal vegetables and couscous to anchor the meal, called around to see who was available for the night and to get feedback for the main course. Since balmy weather was predicted, Grady wanted to stage the dinner at the home of his former bosses and friends, Chavez and Gershenson, who have a beautiful city garden.
Besides Grady, six other wine clubbers were available, and by the time the evening rolled around, the menu had evolved to include a range of delicate hors d’oeuvres prepared by Grady, such as wild mushroom and truffle tarts with a glass of champagne; a tomato, cucumber, feta and olive salad prepared by Wilson; garlic and thyme marinated lamp chops and seasonal vegetables grilled by Kelly; radicchio stuffed with mozzarella and figs also made by Kelly; couscous topped with roasted vegetables and chickpeas made by Engdahl; and orange blossom crepes filled with chocolate Grand Marnier sauce for dessert, made by Elaine Speer, a member of the wine club who couldn’t make the dinner but contributed dessert since she is the pastry chef at J&L. Besides the champagne, five wines were picked to complement the dishes.
Because Grady always wants to set the stage in style, he set the dinner table for this evening under a vine-encrusted loggia, inspired by the idea of an autumnal table of plenty. A lustrous satin tablecloth in burnished gold was topped with handsome earthenware, matching satin napkins and a copious spread of imported cheeses and fresh and dried fruits on an elegant marble cutting board.
The sumptuous ambience of the table belied Grady’s economical side, something he is quite proud of. The table spread, in fact, was an inexpensive length of satin bought at a fabric store, the fruits came from a nearby farmer’s market, and the cutting board was a slab of marble Grady salvaged from a construction site he happened on years ago. Furthermore, underneath the cloth, the dining table was a scruffy wood folding table.
“My favorite thing to do when the group meets is to make the table look extravagant on a budget,” he says.
Another favorite trick is to forgo flowers, which can become expensive, in favor of a seasonal cornucopia of fruits and cheeses that guests can nibble on throughout the evening.
While the surroundings and sustenance are appealing, the group’s primary objective is to compare and contrast the wines they serve with every course. From the lively discussions that ensue, it’s hard to tell that attendees are mostly novices. Terms such as “fruity, robust, spicy, earthy, muscular and warm” get bandied about as each course is consumed and the accompanying wines are sampled–and dissected.
Besides being a fun learning experience, the wine tasting sometimes yields surprising results that help everyone professionally. For instance, the two wines chosen to complement the main course were a California Treana Proprietary Red that retails for about $25 a bottle, and an Italian Giacomo Barolo Cascina that retails for about $75 a bottle.
Excitement was high about the Barolo, a major splurge. But once glasses were clinked and the wines enjoyed, half the group thought the Treana was better with the lamb than the Barolo. And the same members decided they would like to use the less expensive wine for their clients.
“This often happens,” says Kelly, “and it’s become an important lesson. Our wish-list wine is often not our favorite, and we learn that we can opt for something less costly and still find a unique, flavorful solution. We’ve also learned cooking-eating-entertaining lessons in the process of these meals.”
This time, for example, the group found that while it was lovely to be outdoors, they were too spread out–some mingled by the table, some by the grill.
“It’s really nicer when we’re all together in our tight little circle,” Kelly adds, proving that even food and entertaining professionals can learn and improve on their results.
THE MENU
HORS D’OEUVRES
Salmon tartar with ginger and red onion cream in a black sesame tuile
Chicken and mango salad on crostini
Wild mushroom and truffle tarts
Laurent Perrier Brut Rose Champagne, France
Joseph Perrier Brut Rose Champagne, France
SITTING ON A LARGE MARBLE SLAB
DOWN THE CENTER OF THE TABLE
European and domestic cheeses with plums, Seckel pears, dried apricots,
Concord grapes, sun-dried cherries
Biscuit crackers and crusty baguette
FIRST COURSE
Jimmi’s heirloom tomato and cucumber salad with feta, baby greens and marinated olives
Herb vinaigrette
Prieur Sancerre 1999, Loire Valley, France
Chateau Grand Bourdieu Graves 1999, France
DINNER FROM THE GRILL
Grilled double-cut lamb chops with garlic, thyme and rosemary marinade
Grilled radicchio stuffed with figs and fresh mozzarella
Assorted grilled vegetables
Couscous with roasted tomato, chickpeas and fresh herbs
Treana Proprietary Red 1998, Central Coast, California
Giacomo Conterno Barolo
Cascina Francia 1993, Piedmonte, Italy
DESSERT
Orange blossom crepes filled with chocolate
Grand Marnier sauce and French vanilla ice cream
Bodegas Toro Albala PX Gran Reserva 1972, Spain
RECIPES
GRILLED DOUBLE-CUT LAMB CHOPS WITH GARLIC, THYME AND ROSEMARY MARINADE
Serves six
3 half racks of domestic lamb chops (8 to 9 bones each), trimmed and cleaned
6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
10 sprigs of fresh thyme, coarsely chopped
5 sprigs if fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
optional sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary for garnish
1. To prepare the lamb chops, cut along every other bone of the rack creating four double cut chops. (If the rack has nine bones, there will be one single chop in addition to the double cut chops). Place the chops in a nonreactive roasting pan.
2. Combine the garlic, thyme, and rosemary in a medium bowl. Add the red wine and whisk in the oil. Pour the marinade over the lamb chops. Cover and refrigerate for four and up to twelve hours. Occasionally turn the meat in the pan to evenly coat with the marinade.
3. When ready to cook, remove the lamb chops from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Heat a charcoal or gas grill. Transfer the meat to a platter and discard the marinade. Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper and grill double chops on all four sides for a total of 8 minutes for medium rare chops ( add 1 minute to each side if a less rare chop is preferred). Cut the cooking time in half for single chops. Transfer to a clean platter, cover with aluminum foil, and allow the meat to rest for several minutes. Garnish with sprigs of fresh herbs.
GRILLED RADICCHIO STUFFED WITH FIGS AND FRESH MOZZARELLA
Yield: 24 appetizer servings
2 large heads radicchio
4 pieces (about 1 pound) fresh mozzarella (ovalini), each cut into 12 pieces
1 pint fresh figs, stemmed and quartered
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons each, aged balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil
1. Remove the core of each radicchio and carefully separate 24 large leaves. Using a pair of tongs, quickly dip each piece of radicchio into a pot of boiling water for one second . Drain on paper towels, drying thoroughly. Lay out all the radicchio leaves, place 2 pieces of mozzarella and 2 to 3 pieces of fig onto the lower third of each leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Tuck in the sides of each leaf and begin rolling up over the filling. Set each bundle on a platter with the seam side facing down. (Radicchio bundles can be prepared up to two hours ahead at this point. Cover with plastic wrap.)
2. Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium heat. To prevent sticking on the grill, check to see that the radicchio bundles are dry. Place each bundle seam side down on the grill. Using blunt edged tongs, turn frequently for 2 to 3 minutes until lightly charred. Move each bundle to the outer edges of the grill where the heat is less intense and continue to grill 1 to 2 minutes allowing the cheese to melt. Transfer the radicchio to a platter and drizzle with the vinegar and oil. Serve immediately.
