The latest offering for the office from Chef Michael’s Catering was a delicious exercise in chasing tastes and textures, and “Yep!” I AM singing the praises of a business office’s lunch. The delivery and set up were timed perfectly and with efficiency.
Our mid-day spread included fresh sandwiches of Virginia Ham & Swiss pleasing paired with salty slightly sweet ham and buttery Swiss–a traditional combination coaxed to be outstanding, as well as “The Ultimate” Meatloaf, seasoned and richly flavored with elegant (no heavy slabs here) slices thoughtfully portioned, yielding “Sammie Perfection” with crisp lettuce, a touch of tomato, and thin-thin-thinly sliced onion–there was also a colorful vegetarian sandwich that garnered the comment that “…this did not seem like an afterthought that was “schlubbed” in for vegetarians.” Nice, Chef Michael!
For side offering and other salad selections: a generous dollop of chunky homemade potato salad that was creamy to the bite, with zesty crunch and much flavor, Tabbouleh (a favorite of mine) and CMC’s was infused with lemony thrill, loaded with colorful bits of parsley,roasted tomatoes full of zing, interspersed with a base of fluffy nutty cracked wheat–a simple yet delicious iteration, however the Grilled Asparagus and Parmesan Salad diverted my attention with firm tender bites of perfectly grilled slender green asparagus, a liberal flurry of nice Parmesan treated to a flawless classic Dijon vinaigrette.
Rounding out the selections, certainly deserving a mention was the Asian Shrimp salad, vibrant with good-for-you-ness, full of spinach, little medallions of water chestnut, slices of Napa cabbage, flavorful crunch in the form of snow peas, dashes of carrot, and golden toasted slices of almond, topped with a generous scattering of chilled shrimp and lavished with another perfect vinaigrette of sesame and ginger.
For our sweet tooth, a true treat of key-lime pie decadence that would make the blue heaven turn green with envy…a tart smooth filling of sweet tangy sunny key lime, golden and graciously contained in a sweet brown-buttery graham crust finished a happy flourish of real whipped cream.
The attention showered on even seemingly trivial details, combined with the evident quality of the ingredients appear to be rivaled only by the skill of the chef, who surely sees his craft through a lens of focused perfectionism. Based on the offerings for a (not so) humble lunch, I would love to see and taste the menus that would accompany a festive opening, dinner party, wedding, anniversary, holiday gathering, or any cause for celebration made whole with great food, skillfully and thoughtfully prepared and executed with pride.
Chef Michael, thanks so much for another lovely lunch!