Bryan’s Birthday

Yesterday was Bryan’s birthday. It was a good day we cooked a prime rib, and had asparagus and arugula. We had oysters and champagne (Bryan sabred 6 bottles). Everyone brought a bottle of wine, bourbon or whisky. Lisa and I were on “garde-manger”, we opened the oysters and made the salad. Bryan was on “entremat” because he grilled the asparagus and Travis was on “meats”. Jeremie taught me how to make a bearnaise. Everyone was already getting pretty drunk and he got me to start whisking the yolks and the reduction over a bain marie, soon people started crowding around. Suddenly Kyle yells from across the room, “You know how bad it’s going to be if you split that right now don’t you?”
Everyone laughs, I laugh, only Kyle would know the perfect thing to say to try and psych me out. It reminded me of how much I miss working with him. Next thing I know Scott Dicks is by my side gently pouring in the clarified butter reassuring me that it is not going to split. Thank you Scotty.
Just then drunk uncle Bryan walks in and yells, “You split it didn’t you Crusty?!”
“No, no it’s fine.” I tell him
Then Jeremie came over and put the finishing touches on the sauce and we were ready to eat.
The pasty chef of Boneta, who I think is the best in the city, made an amazing chocolate and passion fruit cake for Bryan. Bryan’s Birthday was super fun but I am sick so I had to go home at 12:30 am instead of going out until 5 with the crew.
I’ll never forget my first time making a bearnaise and I feel so lucky to have been taught by someone I trust, with people I love all around me. Happy Birthday Bry!
I didn’t get any pictures on my camera because any pics I took were with Bryan’s camera so he could have memories. This is a picture of Bryan that I took at Feenie’s back in the day.