How to Take the Food to the Next Level For Your Fancy Party

Hiring a private chef to create a bespoke menu brings a sense of exclusivity and quality into a home-based dinner party.

Photo by Dima Gulpa Photography.

Whether you’re planning cocktails and hors d’oeuvres or a proper sit-down dinner, food is a crucial element of a stand-out party. Cooking the food yourself is
certainly an option for keen home chefs, but hosts who would rather outsource should consider going with a full-service caterer to set up a raw bar or prime rib stations. For a seated meal, consider hiring a private chef who can finely tailor a menu to match your overall vision.

 

Serve a restaurant-worthy menu

Hiring a private chef to create a bespoke menu brings a sense of exclusivity and quality into a home-based dinner party. Darnell Japp, the talent behind Chef’d Catering & Chef Services, is the former executive chef at both Avec Bistro and Rouge Restaurant. For a more traditional multi-course holiday menu, Japp leans towards tried-and-true luxury ingredients like quail, pheasant and chateaubriand. His modern menu would more closely mirror the type of highly creative dishes usually seen in top-tier restaurants, with Asian-inspired flavours, seared wagyu and pickled vegetables.

 

Holiday dinner party menus by Chef Darnell Japp

Old-school fancy

Caviar, crème fraîche, blini, chives

Duck and chestnut terrine, morels, Cumberland sauce

Pike quenelle, lobster sauce, dill

Grilled quail, frisée, lardon, roasted squash, Sherry vinaigrette

Pheasant Ballontine, brioche and foie gras stuffing, sauce chasseur, fondant potato, root-vegetable gratin

Chateaubriand, aligot potato, Bordelaise sauce

Peach Melba, raspberry sauce, vanilla ice cream

Christmas pudding, brandy-toffee sauce

 

New-school fancy

Seared ahi tuna, ponzu, chili, toasted sesame, tobiko, tapioca crisp

Smoked veal tartare, black-garlic aioli, pickled chanterelle, crostini

Side-stripe shrimp ceviche, citrus and rhubarb, puffed quinoa, lemon verbena oil

Salmon mi-cuit, pickled shallot, buttermilk, tarragon oil, squid-ink tuile

Dry-aged duck, caramelized cabbage, honeycrisp apple and brown-butter gastrique

Seared A5 wagyu, porcini espuma, truffle agria potato croquette

Yuzu entremet, haskap berry crémeux, white-chocolate mousse, passionfruit glaze

Dark-chocolate soufflé, white tea crème anglaise, elderflower, strawberry powder

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This article appears in the November 2024 issue of Avenue Calgary.

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