04/30/04

To show how important presentation is, the area is opened up only for picture taking for half an hour before people are allowed to begin dismembering the creations.  I was first in line for eating (yes, I carefully planned it that way....) and I had a hard time destroying some of the creations just so I could get a bite to eat.

With the Grand Buffet, presentation was everything.  Because of this, the taste was not always the best.  For example, in the desserts there were some beautiful creations made with sesame seed brittle (like peanut brittle, but with sesame).  Unfortunately, to get the perfect color to the brittle, it had to be overcooked giving it a bit of a burnt taste).  Likewise with the mouse shaped chocolates.  The chocolate was excellent but for display purposes, the mice were arranged on a bed of green sugar.  The texture of the sugar that stuck to the chocolate mice destroyed the consistency of what was otherwise superb, smooth, decadent chocolate.

Here are a few of the pictures of the buffet.  As you can see, it was a feast for the eyes.

Yes, the basket that is holding the bread sticks is made from bread woven into a basket design.

I stole one of these chocolate covered strawberries.  It was fantastic.

The ice sculptures were amazing.  Reducing them in size and compressing the JPG images significantly reduces the quality of the image.  Send me an e-mail and I will send you the original file.

I met the person who did the cheese sculpture of these goldfish.  An interesting person.

That is a carved ice vase holding the flowers.

A chess set made of cheese and a scrimshaw cake.  Note the little penguins in the upper left hand picture and the picture right above it.  They are really hard boiled eggs with heads made of olives and little olive slivers for the arms and pimento bits for the breast feathers.

Yes, a full plate of lobsters gathering before the lobster king and queen.  I can't remember what the two white lobsters were made of but the other ones were delicious.

The peacock tail feathers are mostly asparagus with a few pieces of bell pepper thrown in for color.  Amazing

Watermelon carving. There was a parade of fruit carvings one night which we unfortunately missed.  The chefs use the various layers of the fruit and rind to give depth and color to their creations.

That flower arrangement is actually fruit and vegetable shavings tucked and arranged to make this display.

Spun sugar.  I have tried to pull sugar and make things like the ribbon.  It is not easy.