To recap: We had the privilege of catering Genevieve Perrier and Dave Johnson’s wedding at the National Museum of American Jewish History on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, PA. Genevieve is the daughter of the world renowned chef and original owner of Le Bec Fin, Georges Perrier. Catering to his palate requires a team with experience, led by a chef with unique modern tastes and a nod to the traditional. J. Scott Catering Executive Chef Erin Morrison and his team created a menu that combined Erin’s outstanding ideas and execution with Chef Perrier’s infamous recipe for roasted airline breast of chicken with au jus de poulet.
The evening’s festivities began as most weddings do with cocktail hour featuring open bar, stationary hors d’oeuvre display and passed hors d’oeuvres. Chef Perrier worked with Erin to create a menu for cocktail hour that would both entice and excite guests for the main course yet to come.
The stationary hors d’oeuvre display, decorated with bountiful baskets of breads supplied by Chef Perrier’s own company Art of Bread, offered guests a variety of meats, cheeses and marinated items. Prosciutto and salami, marinated mozzarella and gorgonzola, stuffed peppers and mixed Mediterranean olives adorned porcelain and wood trays at varying levels on the table. All was accompanied by a sampling of Perrier’s breads including baguette slices, focaccia cubes and sourdough slices.
The passed hors d’oeuvres were each simple yet flavor packed providing guests with many different options. The first, braised duck leg ravioli with sweet onion sage puree, was served on an Asian spoon. The steak tartar on country bread with butter lettuce and sunny side up egg was served on a bamboo spoon. The goat cheese tartlet with melted leeks and tomato jam, and espresso crusted chicken skewer with cranberry glaze were stand alone items. Finally, a smoked salmon tartar with caper chive crème fraiche and potato baton was served on a porcelain Asian spoon and grilled marinated artichoke bite with Gorgonzola mousse on miniature fork.
As guests took their seats for dinner, Chef Perrier took the stage to offer words of wisdom and love for his daughter and her new husband. Nary an eye was dry as he spoke of his days in the restaurant business and time apart from Genevieve. At the close of his speech guests began enjoying the first course; baby frisee and baby arugula salad with caramelized shallots, poached pear, almond crusted goat cheese and roasted shallot vinaigrette.
The main course featured Chef Perrier’s famous roasted airline chicken breast with au jus de poulet. This seemingly simple dish speaks to Chef Perrier’s belief that a great chef is one that is capable of cooking the perfect chicken breast with a sauce given the time and attention it deserves. The breast of chicken was accompanied by au gratin potatoes and haricot vert bundle.
Paying homage to her French routes, Genevieve and Dave celebrated their nuptials with a croquembouche. A croquembouche, first created by Marie-Antoine Careme; known as the “King of Chefs and Chef of Kings”; is a tower of profiteroles dipped in caramel, a profiterole is also known as a cream puff. As French tradition would have it, the couple used a bottle of champagne to break off the top of the croquembouche; the bottle will be enjoyed on their first anniversary. Accompanying the profiteroles, which were broken apart and served to each guest, was a table full of miniature desserts provided by Classic Cake Executive Chef Robert Bennett who worked previously for Chef Perrier. Dessert selections included berry tarts, triple chocolate napoleons and tiramisu just to name a few.
The evening was altogether a successful, beautiful and heartwarming celebration of two people’s love for each other. Thank you to the staff at the National Museum of American Jewish History, Pam from Magnifique Décor, Patricia from Elegant From Start to Finish event planning, and Robert Bennett from Classic Cake.
