Chefs Party

Chefs Party

My wife and I used to entertain a lot. We actually meet in Kuwait where we both were working. At the time, she was a Filipino OFW and I was an American Expat, same thing just different terms. We, like most of our friends, were far from home and family. When you live and work abroad there is a certain kinship develops with other people in the same situation. It can be hard to understand if you have never been there. On holidays, birthdays, anniversaries it is your friends you are with instead of your family. They can’t replace your family but you do what you can for each other to stave off the loneliness. You will never have closer friends, if only for a little while. Part of this lifestyle is you have get togethers on a fairly regular basis. Like most people, our friends were people with similar interest. People we played Badminton or Volleyball with or worked with or people who enjoyed the same activities and passions as us.

I’ll give you a little background on my wife and myself. My wife Dang, is a wonderful Chef, the title international truly fits her. Her background is in Japanese, Italian, Filipino, Indian and American Cuisine. She has spent her entire working life in restaurants and is very versatile. My story is slightly different; I started out working in restaurants, one of my first public jobs being at a small French Café. From there I worked my way through a number of different types of restaurants, including Italian, Chinese, Soul Food and Classic American but as can often happen life got in the way and I veered onto another path. Meeting my wife brought me back to my cooking roots and as crazy as it may sound most of our early dates were spent in the kitchen together. Knowing this, little bit, about us it should come as no surprise that the majority of our friends were Foodies.

It never seemed to matter what type of party we had, pool, dinner, birthday, Christmas etc. The action and most of the people always seemed to be in the kitchen. It didn’t matter what music we played or games we had planned or even on the setting. If we had a Beach Party you would find everyone around the grilles and steamers. Seeing this happen again and again we hit on a new idea and embraced it instead of fighting it and the Chef Parties were born.

The idea behind a Chef Party is simple but does require cooperation some basic rules. No one brings a finished dish. Prep work is allowed at home but again no finished dishes. Don’t touch anyone else’s dish without permission. The owner of the house, apartment, restaurant, is the Head Chef for the evening and settles all disputes and orchestrates the party. Everyone should bring wine or appropriate beverages to accompany their dish and the number one rule is of course relax and have fun. You are among friends, doing something you all love. Enjoy!