Northshore Magazine

5 Star Events ne MEMORABLE EVENTS. NO GIMMICKS. Award winning djs Greg and Dave Hodges fill dance floors and create memorable events without gimmicks or games. We find it's things like great music, impeccable attention to detail, excellent customer service and thorough planning that make excellent receptions. 508.591.0710 www.5starevents.com Greg wasn't voted Best in Boston for nothing. He invests in his couples and it shows on the wedding day. A true professional who can pack a dance floor and emcee an event with the best in the business. ! I highly recommend! We can enhance your event with uplighting and custom dancefloor monograms from www.creativeuplighting.com. KJ JanFeb14 Iceland.indd 114 Food "I work with artists every day of my life, and when I walked into the kitchen, it dawned on me that I was witnessing an artistic culinary creation. There was a real rhythm and timing to their work, much like recording a hit record." So German and Zarak visited enormous refrigerated warehouses to source their fruits and vegetables. They also visited Icelandic hothouses that are heated and watered from the country's natural underground hot springs to buy baby greens and cherry tomatoes that had been grown in Iceland. But there were a couple ingredients that German and Zarak had no trouble sourcing: salmon and caviar, which they made liberal use of with menu items like Icelandic cured salmon blinis with fresh dill, crème fraîche, and red caviar, as well as grilled Icelandic salmon sliders with fresh dill and sautéed caper tartar sauce, bacon, and arugula. "Their caviar was so affordable," German says, adding that, "they had salmon there that was just the freshest salmon we had ever worked with." Because they were using foreign ingredients, each of the dishes tasted a bit different than they would have at home. For instance, German and Zarak had to substitute sweet potatoes and carrots for the variety of squashes that they typically use in their harvest soup. The Icelandic crème fraîche tasted more like American sour cream because of the differences in how cows are fed in Iceland. And the Icelandic beef tenderloin was a bit gamier than it is in the United States, more like stew meat, German says. But the difference in taste did nothing to affect the quality of the food. "There are very few catering and event planning companies that could deliver that level of quality and presentation in a foreign environment without their usual crew," Chris G. says. "I work with artists every day of my life, and when I walked into the kitchen, it dawned on me that I was witnessing an artistic culinary creation. There was a real rhythm and timing to their work, much like recording a hit record." Of course, even a rock-star wedding wouldn't be complete without a wedding cake, so German and Zarak tapped Sigurdur Mar Gudjonsson, a master baker and master confectioner of the renowned Reykjavík-based bakery, Bernhoftsbakari. "The cake was made up of Sacher-like sponge bottoms with French butter cream," Gudjonsson says. "The only flavoring is natural Tahiti vanilla." 114 11/22/13 9:18 AM

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