A Taste of 1000

After wholesaling and antiquing came my favorite part of the day, menu tasting. I chose 4 appetizers, 2 soups, and 3 entrees to sample. I also brought along a sister who is allergic to gluten/dairy/egg (you know, basically everything), and a mother who is allergic to dairy. This meant a lot of extras left over for me.

Poached lobster with avocado mousse on cucumber rounds, and miniature baked brie with fruit compote.

I wish I could build a menu completely out of appetizers. Not only do I like when food is served in teensy tiny portions, but you are able to get so many flavors in your mouth before you start to feel full. The baked brie rounds were a little hard to eat, so the chef is going to make them even smaller for us. Won't they look cute?

Seasonal bruschetta, and seared rare beef tenderloin on crostini with grain mustard.

Asparagus with tarragon creme fraiche

Ahem, there may be multiple soup cups surrounding me because I enjoyed it so much that I took the extras from all of the people that couldn't eat them (read: every person at the table)

I'm enjoying some roasted tomato bisque with creme fraiche and basil in this shot. Yummy.

We actually chose neither of the soups they brought out for us. My dad is an organic farmer, and his specialty is onions. Hotel 1000 is going to create a soup just for us, using onions we provide from our own farm. (If you are one of my guests, don't tell, we are going to keep it a surprise until the night of the wedding when he sees his name on the menu!)

My mom dutifully took notes. I was too busy eating to write anything down.

Roasted king salmon with wild mushroom risotto, baby spinach, and a pinot noir jus
Orecchiette pasta with rapini, radiocchio, pine nuts, golden raisons, gorgonzola, and olive oil
Grilled new york steak with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, baby spinach, and red wine jus

To be honest, I wasn't that impressed with any of the main dishes we received. Compared to the appetizers and soup, it seemed a little lackluster (although the steak was cooked to perfection). We might go with these, and we might end up ordering some completely different dishes and hoping they work out. It's hard to eat at the restaurant, and then eat the catered food because things can never taste as good when they are prepared en masse. I'm still very happy with Hotel 1000, and I don't expect anything less than the best for our wedding, but maybe I set my expectations a little higher than what can actually be met.

How did you personalize your menu? And what did you do if you weren't wowed by the food?