Something New, Something Old

How has your start to the new year of 2023 been so far? At Gregory Paul’s, we actually love the start of January and see it as a fresh opportunity to set intentions for the year ahead. But it also allows us to reflex on the passing year. So after closing out the year with back to back catering events and lots of wonderful clients stopping by, we took some time to enjoy our beautiful family who traveled down—thankfully by car and not airplane—from Maryland/DC area. We have yearly traditions that we pack in every year such as the Annual Gingerbread Extravaganza by the Jacksonville Historical Society, hanging ornaments on the tree as we sip on our homemade eggnog, Christmas day bocce on the beach, and lots of family meals from breakfast to dinner around the dining room table.

Hence, cherish your memories of 2022, enjoy your new intentions for 2023.

“You only need to know the direction, not the destination.
The direction is enough to make the next choice.”
— James Clear

Jofully entertained by a lovely customer’s email that we wanted to share.

SATURDAY’S DINNER PARTY

As always, I’m so grateful for everything you have done for me!

Ps.  No need to respond to any of what I have written below. That would be a waste of your time and you are too busy. No need to even read it now…. or even if you don’t feel like it. I may just ask you these same questions when I’m in your shop sometime and I catch you. If I were a journalist, you would be a very interesting person to interview. 
I simply have to say that I am so impressed with how you’re able to do what you can do. You must have a remarkable business model. How is it that a person like myself can request some type of food like I did today at 3:52 p.m. (Cream of red pepper soup) in response to your email at 11:13 am and you are able to have prepared by the next night? I know you have a lot more to think about than my one dish. I also know that you do not have a grocery store attached to your building so I can’t understand how you are able to run out and go grocery shopping every time a person calls you and wants you to make something. That would be terribly inefficient and result in too much cost.  That means you would be running to the market multiple times a day and that does not seem realistic. And yet you cannot conceivably have every vegetable with the correct quantity hanging around in your shop waiting for someone to ask for it. You must have a food delivery service, of course, but how are you not calling them 10 times a day to deliver when upon answering every phone call that comes into your shop you might have to be calling them again for a different type of food? And what I also don’t understand is that you asked me if I wanted to choose something even off your list with not much more than 24 hours to prepare. How is that possible???  Do you have every recipe of every dish out there in your head???  Have you memorized all that?  I can’t imagine that anyone could do that. What do you do if someone asks you for something that you have never made before?  How do you know that will turn out the way it is supposed to??  Do you look up recipes on the Internet, too, like the rest of us, and then do you compare them to one another?  How on earth do you have time to do that and how do you know which one to choose?  How can you possibly sleep at night?  I can’t even imagine doing your grocery list. How on earth do you have a rehearsal dinner for X number of people and then I presume a wedding for X number of people and then the next day provide daily dinners for a whole crowd of people the following week while trying to figure out how many shoppers you are going to have and then come up with creative new meals every week to offer and on top of that have individual people like me who are requesting dinner parties?   And how about when people ask you for food for dinner parties on the same night you’re preparing for rehearsal dinner or a wedding feast like I did?  How do you manage that without telling someone like me that there is no way that you can prepare my dinner party, too?  I know you have other chefs that you have trained to cook but how do you employ the right number of chefs that have to be excellent, of course, when the demands for your food and the quantity of it can vary considerably? How on earth do you manage a wait staff when at one point you may need enough staff for a large wedding with many, many, helpers and then you may have a long stretch where you don’t need any of them. How do you manage to work into that equation interviewing and selecting new people when others leave and for that matter even finding people for these roles when I hear that is hard to hire anyone these days. And how do you have time to train these people on top of everything else you are doing? Lord have mercy, I can’t even understand how you figure out what you need to buy, to begin with… let alone having to prepare it and have all the food ready on the right days at the right times. And I haven’t even asked you about how many platters and bowls and dishes you need to have on hand that are constantly going in and out of your shop seemingly multiple times a day and you have to have enough of each kind on hand to respond to the whim of the moment of your customers. 
This all seems inconceivable to me—that this can all be managed with great food coming out of your shop in multiple ways for multiple different purposes. I just cannot imagine the stress of your job. I would be dead.
 I guess we are just all different. I would be much more relaxed about giving a speech to 1000 people rather than cooking dinner for 8. Three weeks before the dinner I would start getting anxious—and that is why it is inconceivable to me that you would let me change the menu or allow me to propose a different dish not even on your list at 4 o’clock in the afternoon the day before the dinner is to be ready. No comprendo!!
You are quite remarkable, Greg, at what you are able to do. I feel very fortunate to have discovered you. (As an aside I was with my book club today and they were asking me if I would do the Christmas party again this year. There is only one way that I would ever do it… and that is if you prepare the food. Thank the good Lord that I’m already on your books for that date in December!!!!!)
Have a good evening. Do not respond. I hope you were entertained. 🙂

Quite a delightful read! <3