Insight into how to design your wedding menu

I would like to share with you my interview with the head chef Guy Krenzer, that I had the privilege to chat with, in our office in Paris recently.

Maison Lenôtre and I would like to give you some expert advice on how to design the perfect summer wedding menu.

The French Maison Lenôtre

The French Maison Lenôtre has been maintaining their unique Savoir-Faire for many generations. We work with these esteemed caterers since they are the crème de la crème in France.

Expert in many culinary fields,  Guy Krenzer – The worthy heir of Gaston Lenôtre is the director of creations and ateliers and gastronomic menus at Lenotre .

Maison Lenôtre counts among their ranks 450 chefs, with five of them being  “Meilleurs Ouvriers” of France, this is a unique competition that rewards the prestige and excellence of French gastronomes.

  

Your Perfect Menu

To make a perfect wedding menu, you need inspiration. You will find it everywhere around you, and mainly in your personal history. Guy Krenzer is inspired by everything around him to give space to his creativity.

Just like him, I think the key to a successful wedding menu lies in what it will reflect: your passions and the history of your couple.

Everything you want to know about choosing your wedding menu, we are here to give you the answers.

Your biggest Mistake when you are planning a menu?

In terms of gastronomy, it is, of course, advisable to please as many guests as possible. We can afford an original starter or a surprising dessert but we will choose a reassuring main course. We will take into account the evening’s planned itinerary and the constraints of service, to not spend more than an hour and a half at the table. Allowing them to have the correct number of waiters per table. Which I usually advise 1 waiter per 8 guests in order to have impeccable service.

This is where the caterer’s advice is essential.

  

Where the Head Chef of Maison Lenôtre find his inspiration?

“I find my inspiration in everything, in my travels, in a market, in the producers to whom I pay a visit, in my discussions with the 450 chefs of the Maison Lenôtre and with the students from our professional school from all over the world, in the cookbooks of yesterday and today, and of course in the immense heritage of savoury and sweet recipes that Gaston Lenôtre left at our institution.” Guy Krenzer, head chef Maison Lenôtre

How can you innovate ?  – The process of Maison Lenôtre

Of course, it is a huge challenge to renew our collections twice a year and to create dishes dedicated to clients with specific and strict expectations. It is even more difficult today, with social networks, sharing is almost instantaneous and copying is common. We strive to please different cultures and recommend infusing touches of their traditions and culture within the wedding celebration

 Working to be a precursor and constantly being challenged has been an essential part of our brands DNA for over 60 years.

  

Our recommendations for an upcoming summer wedding menu

There is not an ideal menu for the coming summer, there is a menu especially create for every bride and groom. We talk a lot with them about their precious expectations, their tastes, their origins, the place where they met.

The menu should reflect their history and passions.

Last summer, Maison Lenôtre married a Brazilian woman who spent her childhood by the seaside and a young French man whose family owns a castle with a remarkable vegetable garden. So, Lenôtre first served a lobster with lime notes and a caipirinha sorbet. Then, served a rack of lamb from a renowned local producer, accompanied by the famous vegetables of a vegetable garden, stuffed in small pieces. And as the bride and groom had met in Austria at Demel, the famous tea room in Vienna, Lenôtre revisited and lightened the Mozart Torte.

This menu was unique, imagined for the occasion, and it would have no meaning for another couple.

      

Which culinary concepts do you recommend for the cocktail hour, and how do you develop them?

Simple concepts are sometimes the most effective. And it is this principle that Maison Lenôtre has chosen for their next summer menu, “Villégiatures”, a particularly sunny and colorful event collection, with Mediterranean accents, giving an important place to top quality products treated with frankness for taste and subtlety for the eye.

We always keep in mind it has to look good first.   We present them on white or black marble plates and on olive boards, the contrast make it look like sparkling jewels. Presentation is where you can get creative and impress your guests. Taste remains our major goal and we never deny it in favor of the spectacular alone.

Which theatrical aspects do you propose in a  wedding Menu ?

For a wedding, it is often a question of scripting the evening and the meal. We take into account the flow of speeches and important moments throughout the evening.

The first glance when entering the room is essential, but Maison Lenôtre also like to multiply the details and the attention that we discover, from the name of each table to the menu, written for example by hand on a fan to also allow the guests to refresh themselves if it is very hot, the personalised bracelet around the napkin, or the small personalized gift, etc.

We take care of the entry of the maître d’hôtel in the dining room, the service of the wines in magnums which are extra large sized bottles of wine that are much more impacting , the gesture on a starter, the hot dish under a pretty bell with the initials of the bride and groom, a dessert to share for each table brought on a sculpted and illuminated ice base.

    

It’s all in the details!

Friday May 25th, 2018

Insight into how to design your wedding menu – Maison Lenôtre

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