Alex and I took advantage of the long weekend to make a trip to Rochester and get some wedding planning done.  While we spend quality time with our photographer, florist, and picked out some linens, the main event of the weekend was our menu tasting.  When choosing our venue, I was always upfront about celiac disease and what that meant for our event.  While most venues were receptive, Oak Hill, our chosen venue, was especially accommodating which gave me confidence and helped them edge out the competition.  When it was time to taste, I was happy to hear that everything would be gluten-free.

We were allowed to try five entrees from a list of about 40 so I was actually relived that my choices were limited because of my gluten-aversion.  In the end we chose what we thought was a good range of dishes.

We were also allowed to bring four other guests, so we brought Alex’s father for his food and wine sophistication, and Alex’s cousins (my future cousins-in-law) that were married last year for their wedding-planning know-how.  Their presence proved very valuable and helped us to get different perspectives other than our own taste-buds’.  For example, Alex’s father had the good sense to ask if the wine glasses we were drinking out of, would be used for the wedding.  The answer was no, which prompted us to get better glasses since larger glasses improve a wine’s flavor, while smaller glasses either mute it or make it worse.

For the review, let me start out by saying that we are having a plated dinner, not a buffet, with cocktail hour for appetizers, and dinner consisting of a salad and an entree.  I expected the food to be good, but not mind blowing.  This isn’t Blue Hill at  Stone Barns.  Besides, how can 150 plates of 3 different entrées be mind blowing?

I went into the tasting with my mind made us that I wanted the lamb chops.  However, the meager chops presented didn’t stand a chance next to the prime rib which was spilling off the plate.  I don’t want to seem stereotypically American with my fixation on the size of the dish, but whether you are in the wedding and haven’t eaten much all day, or a guest and maybe over did it on the cocktail hour, bigger is better.  The other crowd favorite was the fish.  It was perfectly pan-seared, with a “crust” I wish I could replicated in my own kitchen.  I actually loved the short ribs, because I love fatty, tender meat, but appropriate for a summer wedding?  Maybe not.  The least favorite of the group was the chicken, because, well, it’s chicken.  BO-RING.  All five entrées were served with delicately placed asparagus on top of ribboned mash potatoes.  Pretty, tasty, and generic enough.

Can you guess what we decided on?

Prime rib and fish were easy choices, but we had real trouble with the third option.  In the end, we went with the chicken because there are people out there that are perfectly happy with chicken and on yeah, it’s cheap.