The Party Magazine June 2004

The Eureka Reporter

4/2/04 Fay's Feast
by Suzie Owsley
Have you ever thought of hiring a private chef? One who would call upon your house to prepare and serve a most-magnificent dinner?

There is one such person who I came across while researching this topic. She makes her home in Beaconsfield Buckinghamshire, a town 40 miles west of London. Her name is Fay Olinsky and she is a personal chef.

Fay cooks for both the world's royalty and the guy on the street. Her list of Who's Who includes the late HRH Princess Margaret, Sir Dominic and Lady Cadbury (of the chocolate Cadbury fame), Princess Diana's father and stepmother, Earl and Countess Spencer, and Boris Berezovsky of the Russian oligarchy. Current clients are not named out of respect for their privacy.

"You have to be prepared for anything and not get upset when strange things happen like the food tasters who sit in the kitchen and observe as I cook for some of my more exotic clients."

Themed food adventures are Fay's forte. These events are fashioned after famous meals in history and motion pictures. Consider your guests dressed in costumes from the time period of Marie Antoinette sitting down to an authentic French dinner. How about a Titanic theme. Partygoers accompany Capt. Edward J. Smith and his crew to the last meal served on that fateful voyage.

The most-popular culinary soiree Fay is called upon to recreate is the dining experience from "Babette's Feast," a 1987 film made in Denmark.

Set in a small village in Jutland, Babette Hersant is a Parisian refugee whose family is killed in the political wars of the 19th century.

She arrives in a small coastal town in Denmark looking for a job. Babette is introduced to a pair of elderly sisters, asking for a roof over her head in turn offering cooking services. She soon learns that meals in this household consist of boiled salt fish and bread soaked in ale – not appetizing to make and certainly not fun to eat.

Fast forward 14 years later, the French woman, who in her former life was a famous chef in a place called the Cafe Anglais (it really existed) in Paris, has only the spinster sisters and villagers to keep her company. Babette's one ray of hope is the yearly lottery she plays back in France. Her numbers faithfully submitted by a friend still in the country.

You probably guessed it by now. Babette has won the lottery which amounts to 10,000 francs. Not sure what the franc was worth in those days but today that would translate to $1,867.05.

Babette uses all the money to create a sumptuous culinary tribute to the sisters by cooking the annual dinner in memory of their pastor father, the founder of the village.

She takes off for a few days to order all the ingredients for the menu. They arrive by boat. There are the live turtles and quail arriving in cages. Village men lug huge crates filled with difficult-to-find ingredients. The cooking begins.

There is turtle soup, buckwheat pancakes with caviar, quail in puff pastry with foie gras and truffle sauce, an assortment of French cheeses, and of course the best wines and champagnes known to man. The dessert is a Baba au Rhum which is a rum-infused yeast cake with preserved figs. This is where chef Fay Olinsky comes in.

Babette's Feast has been prepared by famous chefs all over the world including Davidov's Pitango in Tel Aviv, at The Savoy in Paris, and Jean Louis Palladin's Watergate in Washington, D.C.

"All of these dishes come from haute French cuisine," Fay said. "Do not expect any of the dishes from this movie to be prepared easily. The dinner is a purist’s pursuit.

“The puff pastry for the quail must be done by hand and cooked at a very high temperature so the skin is crisp and dark, especially their little heads!"

Fay goes on to tell me the glasses for the wine selections must be heavy crystal and the cutlery used should be silver. It all just adds to the atmosphere of the meal.

"Cooking for others is one of the highest forms of love. It can be totally platonic, completely satisfying and absolutely delightful," Fay said. "Every part of the cooking must be done with reverence, as if preparing the Lord's evening meal."

This personal chef sent me all the information on cooking this triumphant dinner. Choosing that one special recipe to share was a challenge.

I first thought the turtle soup might be nice. But the recipe calls for "one live green turtle, slaughtered and hung." I am thinking this is not something most people would want to do.

Besides where would I get the green turtle? This recipe is out. The quail, the caviar, and the foie gras just seem like too darn much trouble. So I opted for my favorite part of the meal.

Dessert. Baba au Rhum is a cake made with leavened dough, mixed with raisins, and steeped in kirsch or rum after cooking. It is generally known as the invention of King Stanislas Leczinski of Poland. It is believed the ruler named this dessert after his favorite hero Ali Baba, from A Thousand and One Nights. Others believe this recipe was simply a new way to eat kugelhopf – a panettone-like yeast cake. One need only to consult The World Authority Larousse Gastronomique to learn more about baba.

Here is Fay's special Baba Au Rhum recipe. Rent "Babette's Feast," invite some friends over and make a meal out of it. Enjoy the baba and give a toast to Babette and Fay.

To learn more about Fay and her “Home Cooking” go to www.PersonalChef.UK.com.

(Suzie Owsley enjoys food. She loves talking about it, cooking it and eating it, and most of all writing about it. Send your food tips or suggestions to suziecooks@hotmail.com.)
Baba au Rhum By Fay Olinsky

6 T. warm whole milk
1 packet of yeast (fast rising yeast can be used)
3 T.+ ¾ cup granulated sugar
1 1/2-2 cups unbleached white flour (sift before measuring) pinch of salt 4 medium eggs, lightly beaten (room temperature) 1 T. + 1 cup unsalted butter, cut in to ½" pieces
1 ½ cups water
6 T. dark rum
1 cup raisins (optional)
Chantilly Cream (sweetened whip cream) recipe follows
1. Pour the warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast and 1 T. of sugar over the milk. Let stand for 2-3 minutes then stir well. Allow the mixture to sit in a warm place until bubbling and double in bulk.
2. Stir the sifted flour and 2 T. sugar and the salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center, pour in the yeast mixture and the beaten eggs (add the eggs slowly).
3. Gradually mix everything with a wooden spoon and then beat the dough until smooth and sticky.
4. "Slap and pull" the dough by hand for about two minutes, letting it fall back into the bowl in thick strands, getting as much air as possible in it.
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to double in size (45-1 hour).
6. Grease a large baba mold with 1T. of softened butter using a pastry brush. Other baking pans can be substituted for the baba mold. See Food Notes.
7. Stir the dough vigorously for a minute, then beat in the remaining 1 cup of softened unsalted butter pieces, a few at a time. Again slap and pull the dough. The raisins (optional) can be added here.
8. Put the dough in the baba mold smoothing the top gently with a spoon.
9. Let the dough rise in a warm place covered with plastic wrap until it rises to the top of the mold.
10. Place the baba in the center of a preheated 450-degree oven for 8 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 and continue baking for another 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.
11. Slightly prick the cake to deflate it. Turn it out upside down on a large, deep plate to cool.
12. Put the 1 ½ cups of water and the ¾ cup of sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, making sure all the sugar is dissolved.
13. Let the syrup cool slightly to lukewarm and stir in the 6 tablespoons of dark rum.
14. Drizzle 1/3 of the syrup around and over the baba and allow it to rest 15 minutes. This allows the rum sauce to soak in to the baba. Repeat until all the syrup is used.
15. Serve with Chantilly cream.
16. Decorate with glazed fruits if desired. (see Food Notes).
Serve with champagne!
Crème Chantilly
1 cup sweet cream (whipping cream)
2-3 T. powdered sugar (sifted after measuring)
1 T. pure vanilla extract
1. Whip the cream until stiff.
2. Fold in sugar and vanilla.
Yields about 2 1/2 cups.

Food Notes
• This recipe may be doubled.
• An angel food pan or bundt pan can be substituted for the large baba mold.
• I recommend serving fresh berries with the baba along with the Chantilly cream.
• For a large assortment of single serving sizes of dark rum and other liquors used for baking, check out Myrtlewood Liquors. The small bottles are just what are needed for this recipe.

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Sometimes there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. On top of work, the kids, friends and the occasional moment to yourself, you've got to find time for those niggling household chores - if you don't fancy wallowing in dust and grime that is.

A total of 97per cent of Britons do at least some cleaning - more than the rest of Europe, according to new research by Mintel.

Unsurprisingly though, it's not the men who are doing most of it. Around eight in 10 women, compared to just over half of men, say they spend a lot or a fair amount of time cleaning the home.

But help is at hand. From cleaning, gardening and cooking to paying the bills and walking the dog, there's a professional near you ready to take the strain and free up some precious spare time.

And it's not just for millionaires - 30per cent of people earning less than £20,000 said they get help on a regular or ad hoc basis, recent research by The Royal Bank of Scotland found.

In fact we spend more than £4 billion annually on domestic services including home help and childcare, according to Government figures.

"There's been an increase in the number of households who can't afford to live on just one income, and that makes it difficult to do some things that we take for granted - meaning many families need someone to fill the gap," explains Alexandra Jones, senior researcher at campaign group The Work Foundation.

"And there's also the ageing population. More and more families are in the situation where they have children who need looking after and they have elderly parents, and they're really struggling."

So if you could do with a hand around the house, here's some of the help for hire.

CLEANERS

"Cleaning has grown an awful lot," says Barbara Roberts, network manager at domestic cleaning chain Merry Maids. The firm has 105 franchises across the country, servicing around 3,000 homes each week. In some areas it even has a waiting list of prospective clients.

"Time is usually the first reason people come to us. But also people just don't want to clean, so they pay somebody else to do it."

Merry Maids cleaners cost around £55 a fortnight for the typical home, or £45 a week if you want a more regular visit. Visit www.merrymaids.co.uk or call 0116 275 9000 for more information.

Word of mouth is always a good recommendation, or check out the cleaning businesses listed in your local phone book or Yellow Pages.

COOKS

We've all had days where you just don't have the energy to do anything more than pick up the phone and order a pizza.

But a healthier alternative might be to contact a personal chef who will prepare fresh or frozen meals tailored to your needs, and deliver them to your door. Some chefs will also come to your home and cook up a treat for that special occasion.

Fay Olinsky of PersonalChef.UK (www.personalchef.uk.com) says personal chefs are big business in the US, and reckons it's only a matter of time before it takes off here.

"It's becoming bigger," she says.

"I've worked for people with multi-million pound incomes and houses that you would never see normally, but now I get quite a lot of very ordinary people too."

Olinsky charges £275 for five days' meals for a family of four, or £125 for a chef's visit.

BUTLERS

There has been a 30per cent increase in the number of people employing butlers in the last decade, according to the Guild of Professional English Butlers.

"It has been estimated that in the UK there are 10-15,000, or more if you count the people who basically perform the function of a butler but don't use the formal title," says director Robert Watson.

Butlers will take responsibility for meals and entertaining, making bookings for restaurants, supervising outside contractors in the household, maintaining the house, perhaps chauffeuring their employer.

"In fact, anything that needs taking care of," says Watson.

Unfortunately they don't come cheap - a butler's wage will typically start from around £25,000, often on top of food and accommodation.