When The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, UT, hosted a dinner for 250 meeting planners in town for an Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) event, Executive Banquet Chef Eric Finney's goal was to impress. He had essentially free rein to do what he wantedALHI didn't have any special requests and The Grand America Hotel was covering the cost.
During a brainstorming session with the hotel's F&B team, one idea immediately stood out: Iron Chef America. Finney and his team decided to prepare and serve the entire four-course fine-dining meal in the banquet hall. Working with the audiovisual staff, Finney created two kitchens on two separate stages, each with drop-reveal curtains. "The guests were seated, and then the curtain would rise to reveal the whole team cooking and then plating," Finney says. Servers would then bring the dishes from the staged kitchens directly to the diners. Each hot course was prepared and plated on its own drop-reveal stage, with the two culinary teams coming together to make and present the dessert.
When it came to designing the evening's menu, Finney says he and the executive chef "got out our hammers and nails and banged it out." Their goal was to offer courses based on local ingredients that could showcase the range of what they could do in a banquet setting. "Out of all the tricks up our sleeve, we picked the ones that represented us best," he says of how he selected which dishes to serve. "Mainly we chose the strongest dishes in our repertoire that wouldn't clash with each other. We made sure [the meal] flowed." In the end, Finney served a procession of salad with crab, striped bass, and beef tenderloin, followed by a chocolate dessert. Each course was individually paired with wine.
MENU:
Salad of Peekytoe Crab, with shaved fennel, cilantro, heirloom tomatoes, and micro celery. Paired with Wildhurst Sauvignon Blanc, Lake Country 2001
Apricot-Glazed Wild Striped Bass, with Clearwater Farms lobster-infused potatoes, totsoi, and a tamari-ginger vinaigrette. Paired with Swanson Pinot Grigio, Oakville 2004
Roasted Kobe-style Beef Tenderloin, with Shropshire potato croquettes and a sake-pinot noir reduction. Paired with Ferrari-Carano Sienna, Sonoma 2001