Degustation Menus - General Guidelines
Chefs love showing off their talents, and one way in which they can best do this is by offering a degustation menu...
Internationally published writer, Daniel Rogov, has writen works covering wine, travel, recipes, cigars, dining and degustations. Daniel describes degustations in the best way and is written below:
Restaurateurs and chefs love showing off their talents, and one of the ways in which they can best do this is by offering a degustation menu, literally, a "tasting menu" in which a meal can consist of as many as ten or twelve different courses. These types of menus offer a challenge to any serious chef and also offer an excellent opportunity for diners, because you get, in a single meal, to sample a broad range of the dishes offered by the restaurant. Best of all from the diner's point of view, even though such meals are invariably expensive, they involve far less of a cash outlay than if they had to return to the same restaurant three, four or even five times to sample the same range of dishes.
The degustation menu offers another major advantage to both restaurateur and client, for by sampling so many of the chef's talents, clients will invariably return on another occasion in order to dine on those dishes they most enjoyed during their degustation.
General Guidelines
1. The sequence of courses in a degustation menu should be such that earlier dishes do not overpower those that follow them.
2. Courses should compliment and flatter each other.
3. No matter how daring a chef wants to be, none of the courses served should shock the diners, because that will invariably destroy their ability to enjoy whatever else is served.
4. Every course should be generous enough in size that diners do not feel frustrated, but no course should be so heavy or filling that it does not leave appetite for those to follow.
5. The size of every dish offered should be related to its "heaviness". That is to say, heavier more filling dishes should always be served in smaller quantities than those that are light and refreshing.
6. No dish should be so dominated by its herbs or spices that it will hide or impose upon the flavours of whatever dishes are to follow it.
7. Every dish offered should be so good that guests marvel over its virtuosity.
8. Despite the number of courses served, at the end of the meal no guest should feel they have eaten too much.
9. The sequence of wines, the selection of which should be guided either by the chef or the sommelier (if there is one), at degustation should be selected with as much care as the courses themselves.
The most critical factors for degustation menus to be truly successful are the talents and creative abilities of the chef. However, in addition to these no chef can prepare a truly good degustation menu without competent staff, a kitchen that is well designed and fresh produce.
Glenella Restaurant holds regular degustations. If you have a group, please contact us and we can tailor-make a degustation dinner for your party.
Please see the degustation menu for more information.
For more information on Daniel's writing, click here
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