Q&A with Chef Kellie Calendar
Designing and crafting a dinner party is already a challenge, and if you add cooking for a large number of guests into the mix of things, it can be overwhelming.
Chef Kellie Calendar, a professional red seal certified chef, has worked in Bhutan, Vietnam, China, Europe, and Canada, has some tips for dinner party hosts and chefs. Kellie recently ran a restaurant located on Gabriola Island, south of Nanaimo, B.C, where natural produce, and locally sourced foods dominated the menu.
Kellie shared his insights about cooking and hosting a dinner party on a budget.
Q. What are cost efficient ways to design dinner parties on a budget?
A. It is best to cook vegetarian dishes. Food that revolves around a starch or legume base are often the best direction to take. Another approach is to plan the meal while shopping, that way you can take advantage of sales on ripe products that should be used as soon as possible. Also, if you plan on doing dinner parties often you can ask specialty and local producers to offer you a discount on their products, and in return you will promote their brand at your event.
Q. What are the current retro food trends?
A. Retro food trends are really based around going back to eating more natural foods. That is to say buying products that are less processed and making dishes from scratch; baking pie with homemade dough is a really good example. Things like this that were at one-point common place in most households, have been replaced with the over accessibility that comes with larger grocery stores offering pre-made food items. Another trend is making food that was meaningful at one point or another during one’s childhood. Using food like personal retro memorabilia, often through highlighting an old family recipe.
Q. What are specific meal tips and tricks for amateur cooks?
A. Use a higher heat when preheating pans before you add ingredients you want to brown; this will prevent moisture loss while caramelising the outside of the item being seared. Always have a pot of water boiling, it will come in handy, this is one of the first things I do when I start to cook at any restaurant or at home.
Buy quality equipment, it doesn't take much, but a sharp knife, a sharp peeler and a large cutting board are crucial to enjoying the experience of cooking. Lastly, start early; the pressure of being in a rush will force you to make compromises.
Q. What are common pitfalls when hosting dinner parties?
A. Not being prepared on time. Not having a backup plan in case something doesn't turn out as planned. Over and under portioning or having too much or too little food are common errors. Plating food in ways that are too ambitious can distract your guests from their food, be sure to take baby steps and make plates look simple and clean.
Q. What are some essential supplies for cooking at home?
A. Hand blender, a timer and thermometer, slow cooker, and rice cooker. Cooking great food isn't about special appliances, they are just shortcuts which make life a little more convenient. Garlic, ginger and onion just have them around... always. Lemons or limes. Fresh herbs. Dried spices, turmeric, smoked paprika and cumin are essentials alongside salt or for a more affordable option, kosher coarse salt.
Q. What do you recommend for young adults who want to host a dinner party?
A. Start off doing dinner parties with friends or family, therefore they can assist you if need be, while providing comfort in your trials and tribulations in the kitchen. Another tip is to do a trial run of the meal you are planning for your guests a day before the actual function. This will help you foresee potential problems and give you time to work out solutions. Start cooking for small groups of four to six people before you attempt anything higher, as you add more people the difficulty will rise exponentially.
Q. What is the hardest thing about cooking on a budget?
A. The main limit is being creative! It will limit the spices and ingredients you can work with, but if you are creative this won't hinder your ability to make excellent food. Another challenge is nutritional balance, this can be difficult if you have limits of the fruits and vegetables you can afford. The hardest thing is not being able to support the companies that are doing the right thing, that is to say sustainable, organic, local, socially conscious and fair-trade products tend to be more expensive than mass produced, factory farm, force fed products.
Q. What are common rookie mistakes for newbie cooks, hosting masses of people?
A. Under seasoning, seriously, just add more salt you coward. I think when you are making big portions it is really easy to let the fear of over seasoning take over. Timing is another crucial element to consider when cooking larger items, the time it takes will be harder to control or adjust, alongside portioning and making sure everyone is getting the same amount of food.
Q. Is cooking retro style food harder than cooking regular styled, dinner party foods?
A. Like anything that narrows a field, cooking retro food limits your available options but the techniques and ingredients are usually going to be less complex then contemporary food. So, there are things that make it easier but it offers its own challenges as well.
Q. Learning points as a chef throughout your career?
Try hard. Even when things are falling apart, just keep trying to work through it, it will come.
You can always add things, but you can't easily take them out of a dish.
If you taste the same thing repeatedly you become numb to it.
Remembering that it's just food, relax and enjoy it.
