Menutasting

Last week we attended two menu tastings for two of our June 2010 weddings. On both occassions we were delighted with the results and the quality of the food and service was indeed five star.

Both weddings are scheduled to take place in the beach club, but as it is not open yet they prepared the tastings in the main restaurant in the hotel. I particularly enjoyed last Monday´s as it was the first warm sunny day we have had here for quite a while and we were served in the outdoors by the pool and really, I can´t complain about my job!

On both occassions I had warned the couples not to eat beforehand as the Don Carlos menu tastings are notorious for providing a huge amount of food. People often think that a menu tasting is a pared down version of the real thing, and that small taster portions will arrive. At the Don Carlos DO NOT EAT BEFORE YOUR TASTING!

We were first served a selection of their hot and cold canapes which will be served on the day on trays with waiters walking around for one hour before dinner. This is usually held in their lush gardens and often accompanied by music with a fiesta atmosphere. The selection was to die for, small toasts with melted brie and blackcurrant, chicken satay and pineapple skewers, tuna carpaccio, fois gras with apple. They made sure that there was enough so that each person attending could taste everything.

With a small amount of room left, we were then presented with three different salads as options for the starter. My favourite was the Duck and Mango salad, although duck is not to everyone´s taste so the general decision was to serve the Tuna Takaki Salad, which had the most amazing subtle tastes with a hint of ginger and fruit.

Full at this stage we were handed a small version of their sorbets in flavours of champagne with lemon, mandarin and also cranberry. They are presented in champagne glasses with straws and although the cranberry looked the nicest, we settled on the lemon sorbet as we felt that it would appeal to all guests.

My clients who were then only expecting a taste of everything, were presented with a full size main course each. They were laughing at this stage as there really wasnt any room left! Again all food was to die for. We tried fillet of beef with a truffle sauce, slow cooked olive crusted lamb cutlets and fillet of sea bass. The choice was difficult but again to appeal to the larger audience, we settled on the beef. The only let down with this and most other venues in Spain, is that they dont offer a choice of dish, only one starter and one main course may be selected. There is of course always a vegetarian option available to those who dont like the main menu.

Throughout the tasting we were topped up with wine and their house selection which is included in the menu price was light and perfect for drinking in warm weather.

We were all in great form at this stage, full of food and wine when they wheeled out a trolley containing not one, but two wedding cakes. Then they popped open the cava and we had all forgotten it was a menu tasting and felt like it was our birthdays instead. I attend so many tastings that I have to be careful not to eat everything, but at the Don Carlos I always keep some room for the cake. My favourite is the strawberries and cream sponge, finished with white chocolate on the outside. It is perfectly complemented by the semi sec (semi dry) cava and this is definitely the most popular choice.

Throughout we had a head waiter looking after us, with the banqueting manager on hand to answer any questions we might have. I was truly impressed again, and I have no hesitation in recommending this venue as a great choice for this year. For €100 plus 7% per person you can get a one hour welcome cocktail including drinks and hot and cold canapes, a three course meal including wine and cava for the toast, and a wedding cake.

Pink Wedding at the Beach Club

We met the girliest bride ever about three years ago now, who had an idea for a fairytale pink wedding. She has always loved pink and the more the better. We visited about four specially chosen venues for her viewing trip. The brides favourite at the time was the villa at the Marbella Club, but as her guest numbers continued to rise, it became apparent that we would have to cover the pool in the villa to accommodate her numbers which would ruin the overall look, and at this point she decided on the trendy beach club at the Hotel Don Carlos.

It is only possible to enter the beach club from 9pm onwards as it is open until 7pm to sunbathers. This set us a huge challenge as we had so much setting up to do, and the earliest they would allow us to begin was 6pm! We decided to hold the welcome cocktail in the gardens from 7pm to 9pm, and then kept the beach club hidden away for the dramatic entrance of the bride and groom. In addition to working with different areas, we were also catering for daytime to nightime and we contracted an amazing lighting company to provide pink lighting throught and even a monogram projected onto a large wall of the couples personal logo.

Every wedding is different, we work with a broad range of suppliers. In this case we decided to use the hotel´s own florist as the sample they prepared for us at the menu tasting was beautiful, and the bride and her mum loved it; (the groom didn´t really care too much for the flowers). We contract Reviva Weddings with a team of 6 people to prepare the extras such as the chair ties and additions such as table mirrors, table plans etc. We contracted the lighting company and also a sound engineer as the beach club is a large place and we wanted the sound projected throughout all areas.

The wedding was a huge success and finished at 5am (so I am told as I was sleeping soundly at that stage). Here are some pictures taken that day: