The final Twisted Fork dinner.... In America that is.

This entry is by Randy Sillik.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." Dr. Seuss

This quote is what I have been focusing on over the last few years and more so in the last few days leading up to Saturday's final dinner. Over the last 6 years I have had the privilege of being a stay at home dad for our 3 kids and 2020 was going to be the year I finally started my catering business back to a full time career. As you all know the global pandemic had other plans for 2020. So yet again I shut everything down, returned deposits for scheduled events and cancelled all in person dinner/private chef schedules for 2020. This was difficult as I felt that 2020 was supposed to be my year to finally start working again. That was my first "Don't cry because it's over" moment because you never fully understand how much of your soul is poured into something until it is taken away from you.

Over the past 16 months our family's priorities have shifted and with that our decision to relocate to the other side of the world. I will still cook and entertain friends and family where ever I am in this world. I have to truly smile when I think of all that has happened during the time that we've lived in Arizona.

Pandemic be dammed, I needed to cook one last time in my kitchen, in my house and for my wife's friends. The process of creating a multi-course meal for 10 people in a non industrial kitchen isn't something I would recommend any chef to actually do but I find a certain level of satisfaction in pushing myself to the limits when creating my menus. The cuisine this time wasn't the limitation. It was the patrons with dietary restrictions that would truly guide my path. For those of you who don't know me I generally have a hard stance on catering to very many food allergies but if I wanted to get one last dinner party in I had to meet the challenge. So it couldn't be that bad right.... no shellfish, no gluten and no tree nuts. I was wondering to myself where in the world could I find 6 courses that had no gluten. So I do what I always do when it time to create a new menu. I sit down with a cup of coffee early in the morning and see what is in season and then look those items up in my Flavor Bible. This process allows me to connect each course with the next and eventually I find my way to a region that will help to tie all together. This dinner was to be a land trek through Australia.

So, in one week, I created six unique courses that are gluten free, nut free and shellfish free and I found a way to tie it back to my roots of childhood in Australia, moving to the United States and the region where me and my family will begin our next journey in the next 45 days.

As I pushed through developing this menu I was sad as I knew it would be my last in the United States of America but I knew that I would not be the only one that would be glad that it even happened.