Today we’re going to be talking about Chef’s Tasting Menus; how they work, how they’re structured, and how we can try this at home! We don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen, but it is such fun to have a fancier meal at home.
Picture a special meal with your husband and children, where they’ve helped to prepare different courses that are simple, elegant, and able to be made in a relatively short amount of time. The ingredients of the meal are not too fancy, but it feels special and elevated. You have time to linger over the meal and enjoy the different flavors, which are tied together by some theme, whether it’s a country inspired dish like Italian, or whether it’s seafood, or whatever works together well.
I’m going to give you some suggestions of things you can make to have a kind of tasting menu at home. A tasting menu is always made up of small courses, so that you can have more courses in total, and not be too full.
So, first, let’s talk about the structure of a tasting menu. Have you ever sat down for a tasting menu at a restaurant, and wondered “Why did they do the dishes in that order? How do they take you on a journey from the first course to the dessert?” Somehow chefs managed to tell a story through the meal, and give you sensory exploration, sensory surprises, and a progression of flavors. They use technique and immersion to help you enjoy the experience. We want to try and do the same thing at home to a lesser extent. It’s more than a series of small plates. It’s a story told through a food tasting menu.
Courses in French cuisine used to be even more formal and structured than they are now. We also see something similar in the tradition of Japanese Kaiseki Ryori. Each dish reflects seasonal themes and local ingredients. Today, when partaking in tasting menus from restaurants, you have a culinary experience where you sit down, you put your trust in the chef, you don’t worry what to order, but you let them guide you course by course through the curated experience that they’ve come up with. It has an enhanced flavor, it uses different textures, and all kinds of design on the plate; different colors and all of that.
So, when designing a tasting menu, the chef thinks about what they want people to feel. Do they want them to be surprised, comforted, or excited? They want to balance richness with softness. They want different textures like crunch, but each course needs to be complete in itself, and set the stage for the next one.
Let’s break down the anatomy of a tasting menu as it’s normally structured. The first course would be called the amuse-bouche, which is a fancy French word. This course is usually just one or two small bites. It’s like the chef saying “welcome”; like a movie trailer. It’s not the whole story, but a little hook. It might be a warm carrot soup in a tiny cup or a small, single oyster. It’s bright, and it wakes up your palate.
Then the second course would be a light appetizer, something fresh, often raw; bright and refreshing. Maybe there would be raw, barely cooked vegetables, so that they’re not heavy to eat. Maybe there’d be citrus segments, or chilled pea soup, with lemon zest.
Then there’d be a heavier midcourse. This is where the menu starts to gain momentum. These dishes will have more warmth; maybe cooked proteins, handmade pasta, or potato dishes. You could have a scallop over a corn puree with brown butter foam, layering the richness and the texture. A mushroom stuffed with ricotta. Sometimes this course is expanded into two or three courses at a fancy restaurant.
The main course is the showstopper – the richest, most intricate dish of the evening. It could be something like a fried duck breast with roasted vegetables, or fruits like plums and citrus. Maybe it’ll include parsnip puree, shaved truffle, or other luxurious ingredients. This is usually the final savory dish, so you’ll feel satisfied after eating it, but not quite full.
Then there’ll be a palate cleanser; something acidic and light, like cucumber lime granita or lemon or apple sorbet – something refreshing.
Then dessert won’t be too sweet but will be enticing! An example of a chef’s menu dessert is cake with lemon curd, and mascarpone – creamy, citrusy, and gently sweet. Maybe it’ll be something chocolate-ish, or with salted caramel; elegant, but not excessive.
The final course might be small sweets, biscuits, or little treats to accompany coffee or tea. Perhaps this will be some cheese or a bowl of berries – a little surprise to leave you smiling, tiny bites that are thoughtful and delicate.
You’ve gone on a journey, a complex, well crafted menu, and it’s designed to move you emotionally. It’s what leaves you feeling filled.
How can we bring the tasting menu home? How can we do this at home without it being a crazy, overwhelming challenge? We don’t need Michelin stars or sous chefs to do this at home. We can simplify it, and take inspiration from the things that we can apply at home – to infuse a little bit of magic into family dinner time or celebrations.
Firstly, it’s not about complexity; it’s about your intention. The heart of the tasting menu is a story. Simple ingredients are fine. You can ask yourself “What’s the mood I want to bring?” or “What’s the theme I want to create? Is it a cozy, comforting, light, and seasonal celebration?” Start with an idea as a guide for your menu choices. The goal isn’t to impress, but to create a meaningful experience; one that allows you to be close as a family or with your guests, and to linger around the table.
Secondly, think in courses. There doesn’t have to be a whole three or four courses, as long as they have an intentional flow. For example, you could have a small cup of butternut squash soup with some olive oil drizzled on top. Follow that up with a regular salad with goats cheese and orange segments. Then have roasted chicken with lemon served over rice, and then pears or apples with honey, or vanilla ice cream with lemon olive oil drizzle. The key is to pace the meal, to serve it in waves, rather than all at once, and to allow people to pause, to reflect, to talk, to enjoy the experience, and to enjoy each other while they enjoy the meal.
Point number three is to play with texture, flavor, and contrast. In restaurants, contrast is key – soft versus crispy, hot versus cold, and acidic versus sweet or creamy. Try adding a crispy garnish like croutons or bacon to a creamy soup, or add a bright vinegarette to the main course that’s quite rich. Small touches like a sprinkling of a few roasted nuts or squeeze of citrus elevates your dish.
Number four – use a palate cleanser. It sounds fancy, but it’s simple. You can use sorbet from the store or a cold soup. These are elegant, simple things that can reset your palates. Make it a surprise.
A fun tip: blend some lemon juice with water and a little sugar. Freeze it, and then scrape the frozen liquid with a fork for a quick lemon granita. You can add this to your drink or eat it on its own as the palate cleanser
Number five – create rituals at the table. Tasting menus are about being present; being in the experience together, so we can serve each course slowly, and have toasts in between where we mention specific things that are special to us. We can share why we chose a certain dish or certain ingredients. We can turn off distractions. Try not to get up from the table all the time – instead, get into the conversation, and enjoy some gentle music. This changes a family meal from being routine to being a special event. Even a simple one is still special.
Number six – end with a small touch; something elegant and interesting. Maybe this can be something sweet from a local store like little chocolates, mini cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries, or even a square of gum or chocolate with tea or coffee. This little gesture leaves a lasting impression.
We’re bringing specialness, elegance, and memories to our meal, and paying attention to the flavors, the contrasts, and the pacing of the meal, and to the people around your table.
Now I’m going to talk about some specific ideas for tasting menus at home – a few courses within a theme. Number one is a spring celebration. Have a light and vibrant first course. You could do polenta bites with herbs and goats’ cheese. Simply pan fry the polenta in one inch cubes – pan fry it with a little olive oil until it’s golden and crispy. Mix up your goats’ cheese or cream cheese with herbs, salt, and pepper, and top each polenta bite with a small dump of cheese.
Then you can have a course of pea and mint soup. You can serve this chilled. We would use fresh or frozen peas, some shallots, and some vegetable broth. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, and then blend it. You can add a little bit of mint. Serve it with a crème fraîche or sour cream on top, and it will be bright and refreshing.
For your main course, you can get boneless, skin-on chicken thighs. Season them, and add some lemon juice, and then cook them in the oven for fifteen minutes at 400 F; 200 C. Then you can deglaze the pan with a bit of broth or even white wine, and add some butter and lemon juice to this for a sauce. You can serve this dish over something like quinoa, rice, or stir fry vegetables.
For dessert, you could do a panna cotta. See the end of this post for the recipe. It’s basically cream, sugar, and vanilla, with gelatine.
You can end with dark chocolate squares, sprinkled with a little sea salt. Break them into bite-sized pieces – use something like a 70% lindt bar – add a little salt, and have some tea or coffee with it, or even a sparkling drink. You could use some sparkling water, and add some mint leaves, some cucumber slices or ribbons, some edible flowers, and a little bit of lemon juice and lime, lemon or elderflower syrup. Shake it all up together. You could also have a spiced chamomile and honey tea latte. Use some chamomile tea that you’ve steeped, and then add a little bit of honey, cinnamon and lemon zest to your tea.
Theme number two is cozy elegance. For the first course you could do sweet potato rounds with crème fraîche and honey. Use sweet potatoes, and slice them into quarter-inch rounds. Add a little bit of olive oil and salt, and roast until they’re tender and slightly crisp; maybe for twenty minutes. After they’ve cooled slightly, you can add the crème fraîche and a drizzle of honey. You can garnish it too with chives or microgreens for added elegance.
For your next course, you could make a blood orange and pistachio salad. Tear up some lettuce, open an orange and cut up the segments, and sprinkle some chopped pistachio nuts over. Perhaps add mint leaves, then olive oil and a little lemon juice and salt, and that’s a lovely appetizer.
The third course could be some baked salmon with fresh herbs. You can add some almond flour to the fish before baking for a bit of crust, and some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Maybe a bit of butter as well, before baking them in the oven. You can do some mashed potato on the side, or elegant pieces of fried potato. Cut your potato into little squares, fry them up to accompany the slamon – and that’s a lovely main.
Your dessert could be Chocolate Pot de Crème with Sea Salt. You can make this with the recipe at the end of this post. You make it with heavy cream, milk, milk chocolate chips, egg yolks, and sugar. It’s delicious. Then finish off with tiny shortbread pieces or candied orange peels dipped in dark chocolate.
For a drink to go with this menu, you can make a citrus rosemary sparkler with one cup orange juice, two tablespoons of lemon juice, some sort of cordial syrup like passion fruit, and some sparkling water. Mix them all together, and serve.
Then thirdly, here’s an Italian inspired home tasting menu. Start with Parmesan crisps with whipped ricotta. You can either grate the Parmesan yourself, or buy it. You need half a cup of that, finely grated, and half a cup of ricotta cheese, some lemon zest, and some salt. Place mounds of Parmesan, about one teaspoon size each, on parchment paper on a tray. Flatten them slightly, and then cook them at 375 Fahrenheit; 180 Celsius, for four to six minutes until they’re golden crisp but not burned, and then allow them to cool. Then whip some ricotta cheese with a bit of lemon cheese, lemon zest, and salt, and put a dollop of that on top of each Parmesan crisp.
For your starter you can have zucchini ribbons with olive oil, and shave some Parmesan on top. You slice the zucchini very thinly, and then you can steam the strips if you want to, or just serve them raw. Serve them in an elegant manner with some cheese shavings, lemon juice, and olive oil on top.
Your main course could be be ricotta-stuffed mushrooms with Parmesan and thyme. I’ll put the recipe for that below as well.
For dessert, try strawberry panna cotta, using heavy cream and sugar and gelatin, and then you can end with tiny cookies or shortbread again. To drink, you can do grapefruit or orange juice with sparkling water and a little honey. Finish it with an orange slice and some ice.
Do what works for your family. If there’s some particular ingredient that your family really enjoys, or something that’s easy for you to make, try to make it into a smaller portion; a more elegant dish. Think of small things that you can add to the plate to elevate it.
Design your courses with a plan beforehand, and see how your children can help. Perhaps each child can take on a course, and you can draw it together, talk about it, and make it fun and special. Then each child has their turn to prepare the course in advance, and then to apply the finishing touches during the meal, and serve it while they continue chatting. If you have four different courses like the meals we looked at, and if you have fewer children, they can do two each. It gives everybody a chance to enjoy serving, elevating something to eat, and contributing in that way. It also helps to stay in touch while somebody else does the serving and preparing of the food.
When you’re doing a tasting menu, dinner at home, focus a lot of your energy or your kids creativity on the plating. It doesn’t even have to be that complicated. You can just in the moment where you’re going to plate, have a few herbs available, some edible flowers, little berries or fruits or anything that will add to the color and textures on your plate, and then arrange them in a way that just takes a little bit of extra care. You can use a cookie cutter, a round one or any kind of circular container that helps you to plate something like your rice or your mashed potato in a little circle. You can use a spoon to do smears, or you can just put lots of small colorful elements on one side of the plate. Just a little bit of extra care makes that special.
If you’re looking for elegant appetizers, you can go and see our elegant, easy appetizers cookbook! It’s got beautiful pictures of each appetizer. They’ve each only got five ingredients and are very simple to make. So you could use those as part of your tasting menu and just copy the photo when you’re plating it.
For example, the cucumber cream cheese and baby tomato appetizer with a little bit of basil pesto. There’s many ways to plate that to look elegant. You could copy the photo there. I think it’s even in the preview file, if you’d like to download that.
The idea is also to not be too busy as a mom, and to delegate tasks so that you can be present and enjoy the conversation, enjoy the meal, and to make it into a special event and a memorable time.
RECIPES
Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 2 cups whipping cream
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons gelatin granules
- Vanilla seeds
- 1 cup frozen raspberries (or strawberries)
Instructions:
- Stir the gelatin into a tablespoon of water and set aside.
- Combine the cream, ¼ cup of the sugar, and a pinch of vanilla seeds in a saucepan. Set over a medium heat and stir until it just starts to boil.
- Remove from heat and immediately stir in the gelatin until combined.
- Divide between 4 individual serving dishes and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until completely set.
- To make the raspberry coulis, place the raspberries and remaining ¼ cup sugar in a pot or pan over a medium heat.
- Use a wooden spoon to mix and break up the berries, then bring to a boil. Cook until the sauce has reduced by half. Allow to cool.
- Serve the panna cottas cold with some of the raspberry coulis spooned on top.
Crispy Polenta Bites with Herbed Goat Cheese
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 1 cup prepared polenta (cooled and firm)
- 2 oz goat cheese (or cream cheese)
- 1 tsp chopped chives or thyme
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Instructions:
- Cut cold polenta into 1-inch cubes.
- Pan-fry cubes in a little olive oil until golden and crispy.
- Mix goat cheese with herbs, a pinch of salt, and pepper.
- Top each polenta bite with a small dollop of goats cheese. Serve warm.
Spring Pea & Mint Soup (Chilled or Warm)
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot (french or other onion), chopped
- 2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)
- 2 cups broth
- Handful of fresh mint leaves
- Salt, pepper, lemon zest
- Optional: crème fraîche or Greek yogurt for garnish
Instructions:
- Sauté shallot in olive oil until soft.
- Add peas and broth. Simmer for 5–7 minutes.
- Add mint and blend until smooth.
- Chill for at least an hour (or serve warm).
- Garnish with a dollop of crème fraîche and lemon zest.
Herb-Crusted Salmon with Mashed Cauliflower (or Mashed Potato)
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 4 salmon fillets (skin on or off)
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup fresh herbs (parsley, chives), finely chopped
- 1 small head cauliflower, coarsley chopped
- 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
- Salt & pepper, onion or garlic powder to taste.
Instructions:
- Boil cauliflower in salted water until very tender. Drain and mash with butter, salt, herbs, and other seasonings.
- Spread mustard over top of salmon, then press extra chopped herbs on top.
- Bake salmon at 400°F for 12–15 minutes or until cooked.
- Serve salmon over a bed of mashed cauliflower (or mashed potato).
Dark Chocolate Pot de Crème with Sea Salt & Olive Oil
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Flaky sea salt & olive oil for topping
Instructions:
- Heat milk and cream until just simmering.
- Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Slowly pour in the hot milk/cream mixture, whisking constantly.
- Return to low heat, stir until it thickens slightly (coats back of a spoon).
- Remove from heat, stir in chocolate until smooth.
- Pour into small cups and chill for 2+ hours.
- Serve with a few drops of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt on top.
Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 10 large mushrooms (stems removed, cleaned)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Finely Chop mushrooms
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add chopped mushroom stems and garlic. Cook for 3–4 minutes until moisture evaporates.
- Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- In a bowl, combine ricotta, parmesan, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir in the sautéed mushroom mixture.
- Fill each mushroom generously with the ricotta mixture.
- Top with a light sprinkle of breadcrumbs and a bit more Parmesan. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
- Place stuffed mushrooms on a parchment-lined baking sheet or in a baking dish. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until golden on top and mushrooms are tender.
- Serve warm, garnished with fresh herbs or a squeeze of lemon if desired.
