Q&A - Nacho Cheese Please!
A few weeks ago, I received a call and was asked a question about Nacho Cheese….
Through the hysterical laughing, I made out the following question: “Is there such thing as a Nacho Cheese Fountain?” Those who called were pretty sure it didn’t exist when they made the call, but thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask and knew it was likely that I would offer up some creative way to serve up yummy nacho cheese at a wedding. As it turns out…There IS such thing as a cheese fountain, aka cheese fondue fountain!!! It is just like a chocolate fountain, except instead of chocolate you will be able to dip various savory items into cascading ripples of warm nacho cheese. Mmmmm…yes, please!
Cheese Fondue Picture from the SEPHRA Fondue’n It! Newsletter
Also, I have discovered that in addition to chocolate and nacho cheese, they have BBQ Sauce and Ranch Dressing Fountains. Recipes for the fondue fountains can be found at the SEPHRA website. Warning: One shouldn’t blog while hungry!
Ranch Fondue Picture from the SEPHRA Fondue’n It! Newsletter
SEPHRA offers a variety of commercial and home edition fondue fountains. Visit their site to learn more about these models and read their newsletters full of recipe ideas and more! www.sephra.com Now, Don’t you feel like taking a dip?
Q&A - Ask Lea McIntosh a question…She likes to find the answer! If you have a question about weddings or are looking for that special something to make your event or wedding special, please email TWC at info@theweddingchat.com We’ll try to help!
Break tradition and cook!
Are you looking for something different and creative to do for your bridal shower or other wedding parties? Do you love to cook and your friends refer to you as a “foodie”?
Well, then there is a perfect place for you!
VIKING COOKING SCHOOL, “the premiere place to explore your love of all things food”, is that perfect place where you and your bridal entourage can throw on some whites and learn culinary techniques and trends from the pros in a fully-equipped professional kitchen.
At VIKING COOKING SCHOOLS, you can choose from a hands-on workshop where up to thirty guests can participate in preparing the planned meal, then later sit down to toast to the bride and celebrate while enjoying the freshly prepared gourmet fare. Or, if you aren’t up to getting your hands in the pie and have more than thirty guests, then be a spectator and enjoy cooking demonstrations. This option will allow you to learn step-by-step food preparation and tricks from the trade while relaxing and watching with your guests.
How about ” A Night in Paris”? VIKING COOKING SCHOOL can do more than just prepare for the cooking, they have a special events coordinator that can help to customize the menu and party theme, assist with the invites, shower activities, and shower gift bags. Or, should I say, “foodie bags”?
For Northern California brides, VIKING COOKING SCHOOL is currently located in Walnut Creek, and a soon-to-be location is coming to Daly City. If you are ready to book your shower cooking party, then don’t wait since VIKING COOKING SCHOOL recommends booking at least 6 weeks in advance.
To learn more about there other US locations, explore menu options and cooking classes, visit www.vikingcookingschool.com.
Clearly very creative when it comes to ICE
Looking to WOW your guests with a show-stopping ice sculpture? That’s right…Who you gonna call? Clearly, there is a first choice when it comes to creating the icy cold masterpiece you might have in mind.
CLEAR MEMORIES is an innovator in the field of ice carving. In 1995, both Jeff Foley and Dave Peterson, with their extensive backgrounds in the culinary arts, found themselves living in Northern California and working tirelessly in the food and beverage industry. Then finally, as lifelong friends, they decided to follow their passion for ice sculpting and founded CLEAR MEMORIES. The venture began as a small business providing ice sculptures to local catering companies, hotels, and restaurants. Quickly and steadily, their reputation grew as sculptors who provide quality work and professionalism.
Today, CLEAR MEMORIES owns six Clinebell block-making machines that produce twenty-four, three-hundred-pound, crystal-clear blocks of ice per week. All work is done in a twenty-by-forty-foot freezer studio. Their innovative ideas have placed them head and shoulders above the competition, creating masterpieces like no other company in the world.
Jeff and Dave go “outside the box” to find the most efficient means to create their work, consistently looking for new ways to create, set-up, and utilize ice. Truly, they set the standards; everyone else follows. Below are some examples of their creativity and collaborations with Lea McIntosh Fine Events that might inspire you to be creative, too.
A custom ice sculpture featuring a custom logo was created to serve Ossetra caviar, prawn shooters, and oysters on the half shell. This display wowed the crowd, and even took best of show at a Gentry Magazine gala!
A close-up of the Prawn Shooters. Mmmm! This picture is for John Vink, an Apple iphone engineer who loves his PRAWNS. In fact, he had two ice bowls full! Check out these ice bowls, made by CLEAR MEMORIES, on The Flirty Guide. John had these made for his fill of shrimp at his own wedding last year to Stacie Tamaki, founder of The Flirty Guide. John calls them shrimp. I call them PRAWNS!
This ice bar was created for a client whose sole success (so to speak) is in shoes! I was asked to produce a New Year’s Eve party with a shoe theme throughout. I gave them SHOES!
But not only did I give them shoes, I used their own shoe design and made it into an ice luge! What is an ice luge (lo̵̅o̅z̸h)? An ice luge is a functioning ice sculpture that chills beverages by pouring the drinks down an ice slide or through an ice funnel. Back to the shoes…
Below is a picture of the shoes I gave to the talented team at CLEAR MEMORIES. As you can see, it looks like the real thing, but in ICE!
This is a sketch that CLEAR MEMORIES provided to give me an idea of what the shoe bar was going to look like. There are no ice projects too over-the-top for this talented team.
To learn more about creating an ice sculpture for your event visit their website at www.clearmemories.com
With these chocolates…the sky is the limit!
Where do you go to get extreme creativity in chocolate?
CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE, a California-based company, produces creations ranging from festive Valentine’s Day suckers to chocolate novelties topped with the logos of corporate clients, such as Print, Ford Motor Co, and IBM. They’ve made Chocolate saxophones for a dinner for President Clinton and chocolate sunglasses for an event honoring actor Jack Nicholson.
Mostly, they create desserts that some of the nation’s top chefs pass off as their own, or they create elements that chefs use in their own desserts—like white or dark or marbleized chocolate shells in shapes, such as cups, tulips, swans, magnolia leaves, and seashells. The company’s 4,500 customers include hotels, resorts, country clubs, airlines, cruise ships, and premier restaurants.
How does this help you? The chocolatiers at CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE can offer you their creativity for custom chocolates through local caterers and event planners with resale licenses who should be able to special order these custom chocolates for your wedding or event favors! Too, although there is a huge selection of themed shapes and sizes in their catalog, if CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE doesn’t already have something you are looking for, then creating a mold and customizing a chocolate is not out of the question.
I was once asked to bring a little bit of football to a very elegant wedding for 250 people at Sunset Magazine. The groom was a football coach, and the couple wanted the favor to reflect something about him. Of course, the first phone call I made was to CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE to see just what they already had available in their bag of tricks—a.k.a. their “product catalog.” As you can see in the picture below, they have a few great football-themed products available to choose from. The white decal can even be further customized with any team’s mascot…How cool is that?!
Another example of chocolate creativity by CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE can be seen in the picture below. I just couldn’t resist wowing a crowd of 650 for a “Surf’s Up!” themed fundraiser event. I worked with CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE to create these custom white-chocolate surfboards with my butterfly logo to serve on individual blue fondant cakes with brown sugar splashed on top to give the appearance of sand. This dessert was a tremendous success, and it turned out that most of the adults wanted to take the surfboards home to share with their kids.
To learn more about customizing chocolates for your upcoming wedding or event favors, or to request a copy of CHOCOLATES À LA CARTE’s catalog, then visit www.chocolatesalacarte.com
