Would you mind giving some details of the workflow, time, temps on the sous vide process you used?
Yep- I did all this on 2 LBGE's. I did 8 butts the day before (obviously 4 on each). I pulled them and vac sealed them, and threw them in an ice bath to rapid cool.
I also smoked 2 venison shoulders and 20 duck breast. All vac sealed and ice bathed.
We also made Tomato basil soup and bagged up in food saver bags.
Once we got to the venue I poured about 5 gallons of boiling hot water into a large 50qt cooler. I filled the rest up with hot tap water and set the annova to 140. I couldn't believe how well it held such a large bath. I put the pork butts, venison shoulders, and soup in the big bath 3 hrs before service (2hrs for the venison as it was an appetizer (we made venison "carnitas" street tacos out of this).
We also have a Sous Vide Supreme and we warmed the 20 duck breasts in that for an hour before serving it as an appetizer as well.
once the apps were served (before the ceremony at a cocktail reception) we set out all the chafing dishes and started building our entrees. We did pulled pork sammies, fried chicken and waffles, and tomato basil soup with cheese crostini.
We pulled the pork from the bath and added to a steam tray behind the scenes and built sammies and put in a steam tray out front as people showed up. They literally walked right from the ceremony to the table. It got real hot, real fast at that point.
We had 2 people building sammies and 2 building the chicken and waffles and it was balls to the wall for an hour straight. They were going through a tray every few minutes (like 20 sandwiches a tray) and we had 4 people handling it all. Not recommended but I'll get in to that in a minute.
The sous vide really saved the day. we were able to plan ahead, keep things warm and fresh for hours and it was good. Not the way I would normally serve but the situation dictated it. It was my nieces wedding and we did it for cost of food (and didn't even cover all that). We were upfront about what we were going to have to do and how we had to do it to keep costs down (that was key). My sister planned for 150, my wife knew better and planned for 300. We estimate 350 showed up. It was insane.
So my sister planned the wedding and had 8 people that were supposed to show up to help. I think (know) money got tight right at the end and she couldn't pay them so 1 person showed up and my other sister jumped in to help. This could have been a disaster but my wife and I owned a very busy restaurant for a few years and had been in the weeds many times. It was chaos but we pounded out a good service and everyone raved about the food.
The real issue was that most of those 8 people were supposed to clear tables and haul trash- none of that got done and it created a bit of a mess. some of the kids pitched in for them and got it all cleaned up quickly though. I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of $20's being handed out by good Samaritans to light a fire under the teen boys (including mine) to bust out the trash and bus tables. Problem solved but not as elegant as you would want. Not sure many people noticed.
We would normally control everything from setup, service, staff and breakdown but we were doing it because we love them and wanted to help them out. It's always tough to get between the bride's mother and her wedding plan but it's impossible when it's your sister :grin:. It was the most chaotic event we have ever done and would never do it again without full control of the event.
Like I said, this event was 200 miles from me in the country with no commercial kitchen. The wedding was at their house so we couldn't be banging pots and pans around for a 300 person service anyway. i don't have a trailer so I had to work with what I had. I would have cooked on site and Cambro'd the meat for service if my setup allowed it but it didn't.
As you have gathered by now, I'm a huge proponent of Sous vide when the situation calls for it. I have no idea why more commercial kitchens do not use them.
Phew! let me know if you have any more questions. That was actaully cathartic
