Part Seven: Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Day Twenty-eight

Tomorrow is the big event at the convention centre. The secret with cooking for such big events is to break the many, many large tasks down into smaller, 'bite-sized' operations. Actually, this is not a bad way to tackle any big thing that life throws our way. I have planned to get all the non-perishable recipes prepared before the actual day of the event, and leave the things that are served hot until the very end. Here's one of the ladies caramelising the sugar in the melted butter for the fudge until it reached a dark toffee colour with a pronounced aroma.

After the caramelised sugar was prepared, we poured in cream, toasted almonds, and finally folded in some milk powder. Here are the ladies transferring the molten fudge onto a tray ready for cutting. Daksa was going to bake her Sweet & Spicy Slovenian Pumpkin Cake today too, quite a big strain on the ovens, because we needed 1000 pieces, so I was happy to get the Almond Butter Fudge out of the way early. The fudge was actually not on the menu, but Pablo wants to make up small packets to give away as thank-you gifts to the biggest donors at the event. That reminds me, here's the menu:     

As you can see, there were 4 different menus, with a separate serving area for each. The menus would be printed up and posted on the wall. People would then line up and pay for the selection of their choice. Well, it all sounded good on paper, but things didn't exactly go according to plan. As the hours passed on this crucial planning day for Pablo, Pablo encountered some difficulites with securing the room to serve the food. I was astonished that he had not got it in writing. Pablo assured me that the show would go on. As the pressure mounted, I kept on cooking.

My seasoned cut-up crew spent all day and night preparing the fruits, fresh herbs and vegetables for tomorrow's major cooking. The fudge turned out very well. I have literally made tens of thousands of pieces of this fudge over the last 15 years, and it has been very well received. I remember one expo in Melbourne where we sold 5000 pieces alone. There are only a few ingredients - unsalted butter, sugar, almonds, cream and milk powder. Like all good recipes, it has to be followed exactly, but with an eye to thinking on your feet due to variants in produce.

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