Our Second Long-table event for the Event Series
Saturday 4th of March 2017, an account
Outdoor cooking, Rustic dining and New friends Summarising what our new addition – the monthly ‘Event Series’ Long table dining experiences.
Last weekend, we hosted a Beauty – 103 guests, a cocktail hour in the kitchen garden with entertainment, before 4 Interesting and original courses, served at 2 long tables in our rustic open air barn. Although the original plan had been to host our guests out in the open, under the stars, weather warnings persisted through the weeks lead up, making us all the more thankful that the Mavis property offers such a diverse range of spaces – the BARN, generally offered as a space to hold a large wedding receptions in, was the perfect space to begin setting up for this SELL OUT event
An establishment like Mavis’s Kitchen doesn’t run at all without the incredible ‘behind the scenes’ workers that work tirelessly putting an eray of unique skills to use enabling us to plan and execute our individual experiential events , in this case, we were so lucky to have Ralph our onsite ‘Superman‘ to build a shelter for the outdoor coal fire cooking of the two Lamb that Chef Pepe had planned as the central feature of the 5 course menu.
With an Incredible effort by the whole events team here at Mavis’s, 5:30pm came along and so too did our 100+ eager Ticket holders.
The rain held off for the event to begin as planned in the kitchen garden with Bellinis, Ceviche and Duck prosciutto canapes, while the wonderful Lissy Stanton with her soulful voice and skillful keys entertained our wildest song request pulling off a cover of a recent staff favourite here – Tash Sultana’s “jungle” putting her own stunning style on the tune, (there’s nothing that lady can’t do).
From here we escorted our 100+ curious foodies around to the Barn, giving them a lesser seen view of the Mavis Property, Mt warning and Chef Pepe’s two lambs ever so slowly taking on more heat and flavour from the burning embers.
Once settled in – it was a Feast of courses.
House made Dolmadis with Hummus, Pork and Rabbit Terrine with cornichons matched to the D’arenburg Riesling selected by our visiting Sommelier from The Wine Tradition Justin Leith.
Two thirds of our way through the courses, it’s time for Pepe to dis-mount the Lamb from their impressive position cooking slowly on the moody sub-tropical landscape.
Pepe set to work carving and plating the coal flame Lamb and preparing it onto impressive sharing platters alongside traditional roasted dutch creams, and an understated warm green bean salad with beans fresh from the Mavis Garden.
The second D’arenburg feature wine “the love grass” Shiraz was placed down in anticipation of the mains, and as soon as the platters hit the table, the chatty and excitable sound of the barn started to lul away, loosing out to the flavours of the food, a smooth playlist prepared for the event took over the ambience and we all felt as though it was pretty clear that this simple Farm style fare so relevant to the Dishes that Peter and Charlie have been presenting in the past 10 years of Mavis’s kitchen, was really hitting the spot, and that Pepe’s diligent day of outdoor cooking had really provided ‘next level’ flavour and texture.
To round of the night we presented a playful and almost child like dessert – Frozen Chocolate and Caramel Magic. Cold, rich and unexpected, the dessert received the highest reviews of the night.
All in all – fantastic guests, contributors and staff made for another incredible evening in a paradisaical Location.
we can’t wait for the next one.
Mavis’s Kitchen long table events are a monthly occurrence – tickets sell out fast, be sure to Sign up to the ‘keeping up with Mavis’ e-newsletter where all pre-release ticketing information is mailed to first.
A very special thanks to Asher King Photography for taking the Images of the night
