If you are a chef interested in cooking with our enthusiastic members, here is some information of interest.
Les Marmitons is an international gastronomic and social club of gentlemen who share a common interest in fine food, wine and the culinary arts. Through regular gatherings, members gain knowledge and experience in the preparation and presentation of various fine cuisines under the direction of a Professional Guest Chef.
Les Marmitons of Ottawa-Gatineau meets once a month under the direction of a Guest Chef. The Guest Chef collaborates with club members to decide on a 4-5 course menu and provides recipes to guide the event. We like to get the menu 20 days in advance to start the sign up process for the event. Our sommelier also uses the menu to begin the wine selection process. We like to get the recipes at least 10 days in advance to prepare shopping lists, send the recipes out to the members, and to help the sommelier finalize his wine selections. We will scale the recipes for the number attending the event.
We prefer menus where all of the preparation is at the event. Sometimes some preparation before the event is unavoidable -- for example preparing homemade stocks, soaking beans, etc.
We like to have plenty to do for our Members during the event. For a regular event (versus a special event such as Christmas) we have 2-2½ hours for preparation before the first course is served.
There is one team per course. Each team has a lead whose role is to coordinate with the chef and help ensure that the team is working towards their goal for the dish. Teams will prepare the course up to the "finishing" stage. When it is time for their course to be served the team will finish the course, plate, serve, and help in clearing.
We are looking for quality, presentation, challenge to the Members as well as a meal for the evening. This is an opportunity for the chef to experiment in a relatively risk‐free environment.
We meet at the Parkdale Food Centre
. It has a reasonably well equipped kitchen but is a small space for the 30 people cooking. There are two convection ovens (not commercial), a 8 burner commercial stove, and a dishwasher. There are various small appliances. All pots, pans, and other tools are either readily available in the kitchen or are provided by our club. We usually have all the basics like sheet pans, sauté pans, ramekins, etc., but if anything unusual or special tools are needed, the chef should let us know so we can make sure the requested item will be available. When in doubt, specify so we can get the item.
We generally serve about 30-35 plates for each course. This includes members, the chef, and staff working the event (we have 1-2 dishwashers).
We have set a target budget of $25.00 for food ingredients and $15.00 for wine per person for a regular dinner event. Our members do all the shopping.
We usually begin our event at 5:30pm to begin setup and receive cooking instructions. We can arrange for some earlier arrivals, if necessary. Our target is to have the first course on the table by 8:00-8:30 with a steady progression of a courses thereafter. This allows us to end dinner by 10:00 or so and get cleaned up by 11:00.
The members will be wearing the Les Marmitons uniform of chef jackets, hats, and aprons. Most will bring their knife kits and other tools. Our Members are here because they like to cook. The Chef is not responsible for preparing the meal although where appropriate short demos are fine and, in fact, encouraged. The Chef can expect a high level of interest, decent knife skills, excellent ability to follow a recipe (and improvise when needed), a variety of cooking skills from basic to extremely advanced, and eagerness to learn a new technique or experience a new ingredient.
One area we stress with the Guest Chef is to teach us about plating and presentation with the chosen menu. We look forward to your critique of each course after it is presented. Your summary of our event and suggestion for changes will complement our desire to improve.