The pig in Dinner with Trimalchio.

Here is the corresponding section to the Youtube video about the roman feast. Does Heston's match up to the original?

"Bravo!" we yelled, and, with hands uplifted to the ceiling, we swore that such fellows as Hipparchus and Aratus were not to be compared with him. At length some slaves came in who spread upon the couches some coverlets upon which were embroidered nets and hunters stalking their game with boar-spears, and all the paraphernalia of the chase. We knew not what to look for next, until a hideous uproar commenced, just outside the dining-room door, and some Spartan hounds commenced to run around the table all of a sudden. A tray followed them, upon which was served a wild boar of immense size, wearing a liberty cap upon its head, and from its tusks hung two little baskets of woven palm fibre, one of which contained Syrian dates, the other, Theban. Around it hung little suckling pigs made from pastry, signifying that this was a brood-sow with her pigs at suck. It turned out that these were souvenirs intended to be taken home. When it came to carving the boar, our old friend Carver, who had carved the capons, did not appear, but in his place a great bearded giant, with bands around his legs, and wearing a short hunting cape in which a design was woven. Drawing his hunting- knife, lie plunged it fiercely into the boar's side, and some thrushes flew out of the gash. fowlers, ready with their rods, caught them in a moment, as they fluttered around the room and Trimalchio ordered one to each guest, remarking, "Notice what fine acorns this forest-bred boar fed on," and as he spoke, some slaves removed the little baskets from the tusks and divided the Syrian and Theban dates equally among the diners.

Part one of the, 'Dinner with Trimalchio,' excerpt.

So this happens to be a particular favorite read of mine. It gives a fascinating insight into the life of rich and famous in ancient times. This depiction may well be exaggerated but it is not far off the opulence and decadence that would often have been on show. The reason that this will be done in stages is because there is far too much for one blog to put it all in. Marvel at the absurdities of the dinner and the incredible ingenuity of the ancient chef. Something that we modern day masters of the kitchen could take a step back and admire for!

The applause was followed by a course which, by its oddity, drew every eye, but it did not come up to our expectations. There was a circular tray around which were displayed the signs of the zodiac, and upon each sign the caterer had placed the food best in keeping with it. Ram's vetches on Aries, a piece of beef on Taurus, kidneys and lamb's fry on Gemini, a crown on Cancer, the womb of an unfarrowed sow on Virgo, an African fig on Leo, on Libra a balance, one pan of which held a tart and the other a cake, a small seafish on Scorpio, a bull's eye on Sagittarius, a sea lobster on Capricornus, a goose on Aquarius and two mullets on Pisces. In the middle lay a piece of cut sod upon which rested a honeycomb with the grass arranged around it. An Egyptian slave passed bread around from a silver oven and in a most discordant voice twisted out a song in the manner of the mime in the musical farce called Laserpitium. Seeing that we were rather depressed at the prospect of busying ourselves with such vile fare, Trimalchio urged us to fall to: "Let us fall to, gentlemen, I beg of you, this is only the sauce!"

Enjoy  this literary feast and just like the excerpt there is plenty more to come!

YesChef!

Another happy customer!

 A very happy client from  a recent event, catered for by us!

Fwd: Party 21st Sept​ember​
Hi Scott,
Just a quick email to thank you and your staff hugely for the fab food and highly professional catering service you provided at my little party shindig. Nearly everyone there commented on your great food and staff and I am very grateful. I'll pass on your contact details to all I can though it sounds like you're pretty busy with events and more, thankfully! 

Warmest regards,
Caroline.

We are very pleased that we can provide a top quality service here at YesChef! and these sorts of comments makes us realise it's worth all the hard work and effort!

YesChef!

What makes a good dinner party?

When throwing a dinner party what is it that constitutes a good one? In the YesChef! kitchen there is often much scratching of heads and debate as to what should be served. The problem with having a great chef like Scott in the kitchen is that they are often perfectionists. The food must be the center piece of the whole experience. It is after all the whole reason that you have invited guests round. However this is not the be all and end all. Extravagant food is not always appreciated, especially if it is poorly executed and will often detract away from the other things going on round the table, or other area in which the dining is taking place.
Similarly huge quantities of alcohol are not always well received as it can sometimes over shadow the occasion. Too much alcohol can make people forget the food amongst other things. You also have to be careful to match the alcohol to the food. Well, that's what we believe. It's a sensual thing, eating, so why not stimulate all the senses with all that is on offer?
The conversation must be stimulating too. Good food and matched alcohol will bring no end to praise which usually leads to other topics of discussion.
For us at YesChef! there is no one thing that makes for a good dinner party. They are by and large, what you make them. Each person has their own idea of a good time and they often invite like minded guests. Although it never hurts to be a bit creative and adventurous every now and then. Who knows, the adventurous side of things might end up being more appealing. Have more parties, be more in touch with those you love as we believe that what makes a good party those who come to it.

YesChef!

What's for lunch?

What do you eat at lunch when at work? We all have to do it and quite frankly the thought of it is a bit daunting sometimes. You don't get long and the immediate food dispensaries are not often the most inviting. How many times a week do you eat fast food takeaway and then feel guilty? Variety is the spice of life so they say and it is important to keep a healthy balance in your diet. We all know the pitfalls of too much fatty foods and you can't always be sure what your eating is what you'd like it to be. This happens to be one of the reasons that the YesChef! team have spent many hours creating healthy menus for not only your dinner parties and events, but also for nurseries and soon for home delivery. We wanted to have something different everyday that was tasty too so why not for all and sundry here in Dubai? Contact us to find out more via the usual social media channels.
So how can you keep your daily lunch satisfying, varied and healthy? It might be a case of going slightly further afield to ensure that you get a different type of food. By and large eating something other than junk food will leave you filled and happy enough to get back to the old grindstone. Luckily for us at the kitchens we don't have to worry about that, what with a top class chef preparing something new and exciting everyday whilst we prepare all the goodies for the evenings events. Alternatively bringing in last night's left overs from dinner is always a good idea. It saves you money, you know what's in it and more importantly tastes great. A winner if ever there was one.
Let us know what you do for lunch and we may even send you a few ideas for a working lunch menu you can create at home.

YesChef!

Wild foods festival.

During the time that this YesChef! blogger spent in New Zealand it became known that there was a food festival across the island in a little town called Hokitika. The festival was as enjoyable as the scenery on the way over was breathtaking. If there is one place that you MUST visit before you die, it's definitely New Zealand. A truly unspoilt land. No wonder it is called often called god's own land.
The festival itself was held in a park right next to the beach and apparently it is fancy dress! The amount of crazy costumes and get ups that were on show was quite remarkable. You have to give it to the kiwis, they really know how to go all out for a party!
In all my time working with and around food I don't think I have ever seen such an array and variety of food on display. Live huhu grubs are always a favorite, and whilst being disgusting looking and normally not something you'd be inclined to eat they are surprisingly tasty. Duck gizzards is also an overlooked treat these days too.As the day progressed along with the alcohol consumption the desire to try ever more increasingly strange foods pressed itself upon me. This drew me back around to the jellied sheeps' brains and bulls testicles stand that I was evading. Again, surprisingly tasty for something you would normally never consider touching. Eventually the dreaded horse semen stand was reached and for a small fee I tried it...
It was all horror foods though. There was the chance for me to try a slushy made from glazier ice. I don't think I've ever tried a fresher slushy in my life! Also the local produce of wine and honey meed was by far and away some of the most heavenly that has passed my lips.
The friends that went with me and the time we shared at that festival was one of the best times of my life and something I will not forget anytime soon. It really is times like that you wish you could freeze time and hold it for just a while longer. Id like to thank everyone and everything that made that weekend spectacular.

Yeschef!

Watch not, waste not?

How many of you watch cooking shows? How many of you take notice of what is being made? Do you even ever attempt to make something you have seen on one of these shows? Even if they are professed as quick and easy? From our experience very few of these dishes that are quite rightly delicious are ever made, let alone remembered. There are a couple of reasons why we at YesChef! believe that this happens. Firstly cooking shows are by and large on T.V. It makes it quite hard to follow instructions via any other medium without the visual aspect. Can you imagine trying to make a meringue following instructions on the radio? Cooking is as much visual as it is taste. After all the old adage is, "People eat with their eyes." Quite often the other one soon followed is, "Eyes bigger than their belly." However the medium of television, whilst being a great tool for educating, informing and entertaining, can also be a tool for idling away boredom. Cooking shows seldom have a great deal of excitement within that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This is not the shows fault or indeed the chefs. It's just how it is, food doesn't quite get the pulse racing like a tight and fiercely contested sporting event.
Often cookery shows tend to be on at the time of day when there is nothing else on, or no one to watch them. The student days of this particular YesChef! blogger we oft spent at 3pm sat in front of the telly with a riveting line up of Countdown and Ready, Steady, Cook to look forward to till it was considered a legitimate time to start drinking. They are non committal viewing. No thought is required as you are supposed to be learning. However as a non committal viewing experience you tend to switch off and as such just as quickly forget what has just been dished up for your visual pleasure, no matter how good it looks. There is no particular moral point in this blog about cookery shows, it just seems to YesChef! that the whole point of food is to enjoy it. Watching it being made can be a great experience provided that you are participating in some form at any stage in it, be it preparation or ingestion. Maybe the point that has been made is to actually watch more shows and actually make the food on them. Give it a try, it cant be any worse than letting those marvelous recipes just disappear.

YesChef!

Super recipes for super fans of YesChef!

So for all you lucky YesChef! fans out there who have continued into the realms of the blog-o-sphere here are some exciting new recipes for you all to enjoy and try at home. These ones have a particular Middle Eastern theme and due to the fact they have been published in the Mother, Baby & Child magazine they are very simple dishes that can be made together with any member of the family, old and young alike. As I'm sure most of you know Middle Eastern food is all about spice and flavor and these dishes are no exception. Let us know what you think and if you made it how did the family respond?

Enjoy these authentic recipes with friends and family, after all it always tastes better with good company!

Dining out at home.

How often have you and your family, or just you and the wife/girlfriend/hubby gone out for dinner in the past week? Probably not that often to be honest. It's quite hard to find the time when you have a family. Yet when you do it's very important to get the best value for money combined with the best experience possible for where you go and what you pay. All too often are we disappointed by the results, or at least not that satisfied. It can't really be that difficult to  find an establishment that has a decent, value for money menu that offers a great dining environment too is it? Apparently, even in a place like Dubai where there are top class chefs left right and centre, this is the case. So what are the options available to you? You could spend every waking minute trying to find that one special place that offers everything, or indeed a few that offer somewhere in the region of what you expect, but no one has the time for that. That's why food critics get paid to do it for us. Even then their opinion is by and large just that. Secondly, and here is another shameless plug, you could hire us at YesChef! to provide an exceptional dining experience in your own home. Yet even though we provide great quality food service all for a very reasonable price, we doubt that you would want us in your home every weekend!
So this leads on to the third option. (The option of take away is not even being considered is this blog, needless to say)!
Dining out at home. What better way to enjoy each others company, create the right ambience and enjoy some top quality food than right there in your own home? Everyone knows that a home cooked meal always tastes best, maybe its the effort that someone else has gone into for no monetary reward, maybe it is the devotion of time and effort, maybe it's that secret ingredient called love. Who knows? What we at YesChef! do know is that like most homes across the board there will be a mountain of cookery books filled with hardly ever used recipes that never cease to delight and enthuse when made. They are more often than not also far more imaginative than what is on offer at most of the restaurants you pay a fortune to eat at. The presentation of a well prepared and lovingly made dinner for the loved ones in your life creates an atmosphere of happiness and general wellbeing throughout the evening. The chef can also feel a little smug too, as they have impressed with their believed to be non existent cookery skills!
The only downside of this though is who has to do the dishes at the end! Go on, dig to those cookery books that you've always looked at but hardly ever used. Make something delicious and impress the family.

YesChef!

An under rated tip that may well save your life!

Something that has been long made aware to those in the food industry is the all to apparent and irritating danger of fire. It comes in many forms in the kitchen, flambé, from the stove and sometimes from burnt food. Often they are minor and something that is more of an irritant than a danger as it puts the team in the kitchen behind and it's a bit of mess to clean up afterwards. From a personal point of view for the chef it is most upsetting as it represents a loss of control in both technique and timing. Most of the time though these small fires are quickly and safely dealt with. This is because as professionals they know what they are doing and how to handle such events. The same could not be said for many less informed food enthusiasts.
At universities up and down the UK at least, the fire brigade is called out almost every Saturday to put out a fire in a student residence that ends up either gutting the kitchen, or seriously damaging the house. You'd be surprised at the amount there actually is of this event. As such during freshers week the fire service is often seen outside the front of the main building doing a demonstration of what not to do when a particular fire is started. This is the most frequent and dangerous of fires. The oil fire. The reason behind this is, as common knowledge suggests that if something is on fire, you add water to put it out. If you've ever seen one of these demonstrations you'll know that this is in fact the exact opposite of what you should do. Even half a cup of water to your average chip pan fire will result in a catastrophic explosion, large enough to consume the entire average student kitchen and set everything inside ablaze. It's actually very scary to see.
The second reason why this type of fire is so dangerous is because they almost always happen when the person making the food is drunk. They come home after a long night of heavy boozing and decide that they have the beer munchies. We've all done it and we're all guilt of doing it. Several times during my travels in New Zealand there were instances of people almost setting the house on fire due to this exact scenario. The pan is left on the heat and the oil catches fire as the protagonist has forgotten. There was a large campaign in NZ that highlighted this. It was imaginatively called the, 'Don't drink and fry,' campaign. Either way it's an important message. So to end this blog we at YesChef! would like to give you the answer to what to do if this ever happens to you. Not that it ever would, you are all experts in the kitchen of course! If the pan does set alight, turn off the heat, remove the pan from the heat source and cover with a damp tea towel. This stops the fire from getting oxygen to burn and promptly extinguishes itself. No need for the fire department or a new kitchen!
Keep on cooking and be safe.

YesChef!

You are where you eat?

If your household is anything like ours, then we are sure that amongst the craziness of daily life, the hustle and bustle of work, friends, family and children there is one thing that serves as a focal point and reason to stop, take stock and reset. The dining table. This much under-rated but over used item in the home is possibly the last bastion of the ever shrinking, 'family time,' within the household.
It used to be the reason to be home at 6 o'clock so that the entire family could sit around and enjoy each others company whilst enjoying a good meal. Dinner time was always a source of much excitement and expectation as the smells of the previous few hours drifting through the house were amalgamated into either a plate piled high or pot or dish placed firmly in the centre of the table. Seldom was there any left over and equally seldom was there much conversation as the food was being consumed! There was never any rush to leave the table after dinner as it was after the meal that the daily events were discussed.
The dining table sees all aspects of family life. Good times, celebrations, tantrums and arguments all take place around it. It truly represents the family through our interactions and no house can be called a home without one. However all to often of late the family doesn't have time to sit around and eat together. For some households not only do they not have the time but neither do they want to sit around discussing their lives with each other, strange though this seems. You could ask why do people even bother having on if this is the case. Yet every home has one, some have more than one and even though they all differ in size, shape and colour, they are still fundamentally the same. Perhaps this is a subconscious reminder and reason for the continual retention of the dining table. They so represent family life that just by having one in the house allows us to remember that no matter what is happening in our lives, or the state of the relationships within the family, we are all just that. A family.
So clear off the clutter that is built up on top the table, set the places for the entire clan, cook up a scrumptious family feast (possibly utilising one of the recipes on our page)! reconnect as a group, chew the proverbial fat and EAT!

YesChef!

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YesChef! Dubai Catering

Here’s a few comments from our happy customers over successful events in recent times:

Dear All,
Just a short email to thank you for the catering this week.
I think all the food went down really well , especially the wraps, and one of our clients personally came to see us today to say how much he loved the food!
Also, thank you for all your efforts to accommodate our requirements this week which have been somewhat hectic at times but you were flexible and we appreciate this.
Jelena has already requested your services for our next event and we very much look forward to continuing business with YesChef in the future.
Kind regards and have a good weekend!
S. Roberts

YesChef!

Fiona giving her thoughts on the food during the Clarke event. Another supremely happy customer!

YesChef! Dubai Catering

Hello YesChef! followers. So here is a little story about the importance of food safety and correctly cooking your food that I think we can all relate to. Some of us at some point in our lives with have had food poisoning. For those of you that have not, it is not something that you will want to have happen to you. I was lucky enough to only have had a small dose which happened to be a very painful and harrowing experience. 
During my travels around the world I met many people, most of whom were around my age. It still surprises me that so many people who are classed as adults are actually unable to look after themselves in regards to preparation and cooking of their own food. As ever in a backpackers’ kitchen the mainstay of their diet is pasta and rice. Even fewer actually know when their food is cooked properly.
I lived with a young lad who shall go by the name of M when I was in New Zealand. This guy was self professed to be at best a, “Not very good cook.” There is nothing wrong with this but at the same time he was dangerously unaware of the potential harmful diseases and bacteria that could be contracted from undercooking and not correctly storing and preparing his food. I constantly reprimanded him for his lack care and often warned him of the hazards that could befall him if he did not take the proper measures. Naturally all my words were scoffed at and fell largely on deaf ears until he left for Queenstown for new years. 
M, one night, went out for some food and ate some chicken that was undercooked and he ended up having a weeks worth of the worst food poisoning anyone could ever have. Not only did it make him incredibly unwell but it completely spoiled his new years, which he had spent a great deal of time, effort and money arranging to enjoy. Upon his arrival back in Christchurch the ever annoying mantra of, “I hate to say I told you so,” was trotted out and a very sheepish M scurried quickly back off to his room. From that date onwards I don’t think I have seen a more careful person in regards to the correct storage, preparation and cooking of meat in the kitchen. He is still a terrible cook, but at least his meat is always thoroughly cooked!

YesChef!