Fried Quail with Caramelized Onions and Parmesan + Dinner with Little Kitchen HTX

Last weekend, my husband and I hosted a dinner party for 8 of our friends. Thirty minutes before the guests were scheduled to arrive, I was still figuring out what to wear. Now, you may be thinking this story is about how stressed out I was trying to host a dinner party while panicking over all the last minute party details. However, the exact opposite was true. I was actually totally relaxed while casually considering my wardrobe options because I knew everything for dinner was handled. How? Had I spent days pre-cooking everything? Had I ordered from a favorite restaurant and hidden the take-out boxes? No and No. My secret weapon was that I had the talented (and ultra efficient) team of chef Jason Kerr and Becca Reyanga in my kitchen.

My husband and I met Jason and Becca at a farm dinner last May. They had been hired by the farm to prepare a dinner celebrating the farm’s anniversary using fresh ingredients from the farm. We were so impressed with the meal that we attended the next pop-up dinner Jason and Becca hosted. And the next and the next. We would visit with them at the dinners and run into them at the Eastside Farmers Market where Becca had a booth selling her handmade pralines. We discovered that not only can Jason and Becca cook a killer meal, they are also two of the nicest people you will ever meet. We watched their business grow from a small pop-up to a full service catering company called Little Kitchen HTX. And we became huge fans.

So, when we had an opportunity to bid on an auction item at The Butchers Ball that was for a private dinner for 10 catered by Jason and Becca, we jumped on it. We were thrilled when we heard we had won!

When you have someone you trust handling the really important and very huge tasks of menu planning, wine pairing, shopping, prepping, cooking, and serving, you are free to focus on all the small details that make a dinner party at your house personal and fun. I had time to think about place settings and flowers and make printed menus. They are seemingly minor but they make dinner feel special.

The menu for the evening was –

• Charred octopus on watermelon radish with preserved lemon aioli
• Fried Texas quail with onions & Parmesan
• South Texas citrus salad with avocado, pickled red onions, yogurt and chilies
• Short rib with marrow, beef tongue and ricotta ravioli
• Chocolate mousse with pralines

Jason and Becca sourced as many of the ingredients as they could locally which is something they always strive to do. They also worked with local master sommelier, Cat Nguyen, for the wine pairings and chose three beautiful wines from Rioja, Spain.

While guests enjoyed the first wine and passed appetizer of the charred octopus on watermelon radish, I was able to slip away for a few minutes to take pictures. Early in the planning stages for this dinner, I had put out the idea of wanting to photograph the dishes in hopes of writing a blog post. Jason and Becca were happy to help. I set up a makeshift studio with artificial lights and faux tablescape in a bedroom and they were kind enough to plate each course for me. I quickly snapped some pictures of each dish and returned to the party because I had no intentions of missing out on any of the courses for the sake of photos.

The charred octopus for the appetizer was cooked to perfection and the watermelon radish had been sliced super thin so we could pick up the whole thing and eat it like a soft taco. It was an absolutely fun way to kick off the evening. High gourmet that is fun and approachable is chef Jason’s typical style and why I like his cooking so much.

This dinner was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I can’t say enough good things about working with Jason and Becca. Everything about the entire experience was amazing but the absolute best part had to be walking into a clean kitchen at the end of the evening.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. I was in no way compensated by Little Kitchen HTX, The Butchers Ball, or Rioja Wines. I paid for the dinner and created this post because I truly love the work that Jason and Becca are doing.