This Sunday, March 5th, famed chef Wolfgang Puck will be catering his 12th Governors Ball for the Oscars.
Catering such a large event obviously requires an enormous amount of effort. And, while the Governors Ball is the largest and most famous event on Oscar night, the Wolfgang Puck Catering operation will also be providing service to a number of private parties and events as well. So, where to get the additional culinary help necessary to pull off such an enormous operation? Why, Kitchen Academy, of course.
A couple of weeks ago, thirty Kitchen Academy students were offered the opportunity to work for Wolfgang Puck during the Academy Awards show. We would be unpaid, but it would be excellent experience. There were to be two training days in addition to working the night of the Oscars themselves. Sounded good to me, so I signed up. This would be my first experience working in an professional production kitchen.
Having passed the background security check, apparently, I made the list and showed up for the first "training" day on Wednesday, March 1st. My fellow students and I would be working on the 5th floor of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which is basically all Wolfgang Puck's operation and is right next door to the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars will be held.
Honestly, there wasn't much "training," it was more like "work". Once we showed up, the students were organized into various teams working on prepping parts of the menu for the Governors Ball. Speaking of which, here is the planned menu:
Tray-Passed Hors d'Oeuvres
- Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone
- Mini Prime Burgers With Aged Cheddar and Remoulade
- Warm Gougeres With Potato, Cheese and Herbs
- Baby Potatoes With Caviar and Chives
- Steak Tartare in a Black Pepper Parmesan Cone
- Smoked Salmon Pizza With Dill Creme Fraiche and Caviar (Recipe)
- Duck Sausage Pizza With Leeks and Spinach
- Four Cheese Pizza With Tomato and Fresh Basil
Antipasto Platter Assortment- Marinated Baby Artichokes With Lemon Aioli
- Tuna Tataki With Sweet Soy
- Smoked Salmon "Oscar" Matzo With Osetra Caviar
- Chopped Vegetable Salad
- Sweet Crab Stuffed Tiny Spanish Peppers
- Citrus Marinated Shrimp
- Green and White Asparagus With Prosciutto
Soup- Celery Root Soup With Fuji Apples and 24k Gold Sprinkle
Entree- Pan-Roasted Organic Chicken With Black Truffle Risotto
DessertI was put on the "Oscar"
Matzo team. We were tasked with producing 3,000 of the statuette-shaped crackers. That's a lot of crackers, particularly when Matzo dough is fairly tough. The specially made cutters had to be hammered through the dough using a skillet and hand towel. Do that several hundred times and you've gotten quite the workout.
Of course, that was probably the "training". Lesson learned: Catering includes an awful lot of repetitive, assembly-line-like work. A valuable lesson.
Another lesson. When you read that the special Oscar molds and cutters are kept under lock and key, they're not kidding. Keeping the cutters secured was emphasized several times by various chefs with the catering organization. As soon as we were done with them, they were collected and, literally, put under lock and key.
My attention didn't have a chance to wander much, but I did see my fellow students working on statuette-shaped cookies (a few of which broke and ended up going home with the students). Again, there was even a lesson here. These cookies were being produced days before the event, so the type of cookie had to be of the sort that would last that long (likely, they included a lot of butter). Putting a menu for such an event together can't simply be done based on flavor, but must take into account the ability to put it all together and store it for service.
Many apples were peeled, most likely for the soup. Unfortunately, there weren't any spare peelers, so the students had to use paring knives. Good knife work practice, I suppose, but I'm glad that I keep a good peeler in my knife roll. So is Manny, who was the first to ask to borrow it from me (everyone in my class knows that I keep a variety of additional tools with me).
After a couple of hours of work, Wolfgang Puck himself actually came into the kitchens to inspect things and made friendly conversation with some of the students. Not too long afterwards, several different camera crews, both American and international, came in to do some filming for their Oscar coverage. Chef Puck displayed some demonstration items from his menu, as well as a basket of black truffles worth about $30,000. Additionally, he had tins of the finest Ossetra caviar worth about $40,000 (some of which will go on the Oscar Matzos I produced).
Definitely a good learning experience.
Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
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