Gisele Perez, owner and chef of small pleasures catering, worked in restaurants and hotels for more than 20 years before going to culinary school and starting her own business. She talks about her New Orleans roots, what to do with candied violets, and sign language in the kitchen.Gisele's clients love her ancho chile grilled shrimp with chile rosemary aioli. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Gisele!
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LA Cooking Examiner: You're from New Orleans. Did you grow up on all the local Louisiana favorites?
Gisele Perez: My family moved to Los Angeles when I was a child. There was a mass migration from New Orleans in the 50s and 60s, and pretty much everyone we knew and socialized with back then was from there. We shopped along Jefferson Avenue - in those days, there was a Louisiana bakery, fish shop and restaurant. We always had gumbo on holidays, and sometimes on Sundays, and always sausage and oyster dressing in the turkey. On Christmas Eve we held a big "reveillon" dinner, with poached red fish with remoulade, potato salad, etc. My mother would make pralines and eggnog, and my uncle would bring a fruitcake.
About every other summer we would visit New Orleans, where all my father's family still lived. We'd stay with my aunt, who pretty much cooked all day for her family. Every memory I have of her is in the kitchen. We'd have backyard parties with the whole extended family. The seafood there was so abundant, delicious and inexpensive. My father usually spent the last day of our trip packing an ice chest of seafood to take home on the plane.
LA Cooking Examiner: Your catering company does a lot of big events. What are the challenges when you're preparing food for a big crowd?
Perez: The biggest challenges are usually logistical. Is there enough refrigerator space? Is there enough oven space when you need it? And then there’s all the packing and unpacking and then packing up again. Then there’s the question of packing your car or van so that everything is safe in transport. Oy!
I think one of the secrets to a great event is organization. I make lots of lists to make sure we bring everything we need. I make detailed lists of all kinds, actually: ingredient lists, shopping and ordering lists, packing lists, setup lists. And then, of course, I have a very good team. A successful event is not something I can pull off alone.
LA Cooking Examiner: Who decides on the menu when you have an event? And who's a more difficult client: the foodie or the one who doesn't care whether it's hot dogs or haute cuisine?
Perez: I rarely get clients who wouldn’t care if I served hot dogs. I place a high value of the quality of the food and am committed to using high-quality ingredients. So like attracts like. We usually work on the menu together. Of course, some clients are more into the back-and-forth process than others. I have a food writer client I love working with. It's like we riff off of each other, and she always expands my thinking. That's the best.
LA Cooking Examiner: There are some pretty spectacular cakes on your website. Did you make those?
Perez: I did make all the cakes on my website (thank you). I graduated from the California Culinary Academy with a certificate in baking and pastry arts, and baking and cake-making are a particular love of mine.
LA Cooking Examiner: What's the most exotic ingredient in your kitchen right now? And what do you plan to do with it?
Perez: Gosh, what's exotic? I have a pretty well-stocked pantry - some things that seemed exotic to me a few years ago seem ordinary now.
I have some candied violets that I use to decorate mini lemon curd tarts or lemon cupcakes. Also some culinary lavender; I have a request for a lavender-flavored birthday cake next weekend. I have capers and anchovies packed in salt which I use in my tapenade. And a big container of dried porcini mushrooms, which I use to make a mushroom essence to ramp up the flavor of mushroom dishes.
LA Cooking Examiner: What was the most challenging event you've been asked to cater? What made it difficult?
Perez: Each event has its challenges, but last year I catered a gala anniversary in Berkeley, more than 400 miles from where I live and work. Not something I do every day, but some very good longtime friends were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their business, the Shawl Anderson Dance Center. I've known Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson since I was 20 years old and was one of their dance students, so when they called and asked if I would consider catering their gala celebration, I jumped at the chance. I rented kitchen space from a catering company there, used some of their staff, and others I picked up along the way. One of my assistant chefs spoke no English - only Italian! We used the universal language of food, pointing and copying, with some phone calls to his wife for translation when that didn't work. It turned out to be a really great event.
LA Cooking Examiner: If you had to cater your own wedding, what would be on the menu?
Perez: Definitely shrimp. I am, after all, originally a Louisianan!
Gisele will be a guest on I Do Radio on June 13, 2009 @ 8 am PT/11 am ET.
