Film Set Catering: Save Yourself, Reluctant Living and The Girl Scout

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

Sam Tan's Kitchen caters rustic home-cooked food made from scratch for everything from low-budget film shoots to private intimate dinners to canapé-style receptions.

Follow the food porn on Instagram @samtanskitchen for latest updates, or email me at samtanskitchen@gmail.com to enquire for your next event!

Film Set Catering: Save Yourself, Reluctant Living and The Girl Scout

Earlier in May, I was happy to provide film set catering for three different independent projects over the span of a couple weeks: two days each on Ri Versteegh's "Reluctant Living" and Tien Brunelle's "The Girl Scout", and my first foray into odd-hour-middle-of-the-night catering with a week on Gabe Arredondo's night shoot of "Save Yourself". Thank you guys for hiring me! 

Every menu is custom according to crew preferences. Here's some of what was served :)

Vegetable spring rolls with plum sauce dip

Chicken fried rice with shredded egg and green onions (V: vege fried rice)

Moist chocolate cake with chocolate ganache 

 Red lentil and tomato salad

Roast chicken legs with lemon and honey

Tricolor roasted vegetables

Roasted roots: yams and beets

Tomato and cucumber with olive oil dressing)

Beef ragu lasagne (V: veg ragu)

Carrot banana cake 

 Garlic bread

Spicy penne arrabiata with bacon and peppers (V: peppers)

Chocolate chip cookies

Spicy roasted breakfast potatoes

Breakfast burritos

Seeded apple muffins 

Asian green bean and cabbage salad with sesame dressing

Malaysian stir­-fried vermicelli noodles with chicken and vegetables (V: no chicken)

Crunchy top lemon cake

Creamy homemade coleslaw

Roast chicken legs with lemon and honey (V: roast root vegetables)

Bread and butter pudding 

Roasted peppers and zucchini

Cheesy ziti bake with chicken and mushroom (V: no chicken)

Belgian chocolate cheesecake brownies

Film Set Catering: The Odd Essay

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

Sam Tan's Kitchen caters home-cooked food made from scratch for just about anything, from intimate romantic dinners to low-budget film shoots to canapé-style receptions. To enquire for your next event, drop me a line at samtanskitchen@gmail.com :)

These past two weeks, Sam Tan's Kitchen was happy to provide hot lunches and basic craft services for the USC feature-length thesis The Odd Essay. It was my first time catering on a film set for more than a few days, and it proved to be a fun challenge planning, shopping for and cooking completely different menus each day to feed an average of thirty people (including three vegetarians and two vegans with gluten and nut allergies), as well as making night-time deliveries to different locations every night for two weeks.

Below is a rundown of the entire menu, with pictures when I remembered to take them. Thank you to producer Shardul Sharma for trusting me to feed your crew, and I'm thrilled to hear you all liked the food!

The Odd Essay 12-Day Menu

(V) denotes vegetarian, (v/gf) denotes vegan and gluten-free

 The daily provision of basic craft services: an assortment of fruit, granola bars and chips (plus cookies on select days)

Day 1: Roasted peppers and zucchini (V, v/gf), creamy cheesy ziti bake with chicken, creamy cheesy ziti bake with mushroom (V), olio mushroom brown rice penne (v/gf)

Dessert: Belgian chocolate brownies

Day 2: 

Green bean salad with sesame and red onion (V, v/gf)

Chicken fried rice with shredded egg and green onions

Tofu fried rice with shredded egg and green onions (V)

Tofu fried rice with green onions (v/gf)

Day 3:

Garlic toasts (V)

Three cheese vegetable ragu lasagne (V)
Gluten-free brown rice penne with vege ragu and mushroom (v/gf)

Day 4:

Cucumber and tomato salad with green onion and olive oil dressing (V, v/gf)

Roast chicken legs with lemon, honey, mustard and sage

Steamed rice with mixed vegetables (V, v/gf)

Roast root vegetables (V, v/gf)

Day 5:

Oven roasted corn-on-the-cob (V, v/gf)

Creamy potato salad with green onions and egg (V)

Potato salad with apple cider vinaigrette (v/gf)

Chicken penne bake

Mushroom penne bake (V)

Mushroom olio brown rice penne (v/gf)

Day 6:

Red onion, tomato and cucumber salad (V, v/gf)

Penne arrabiata with chicken

Penne arrabiata with green peppers (V)

Brown rice fusili with green peppers (v/gf)

Moist carrot banana cake (V)

Day 7:

Yellow rice with mixed vegetables (V, v/gf)

Homemade chicken meatballs with lime and cilantro

Homemade vegan mushroom potato meatballs (V, v/gf)

Day 8: Asian green pepper and cucumber salad, chicken pad thai, tofu pad thai with eggs(V), tofu pad thai (v/gf)

Day 9: Ranch rolls (V), corn tortilla chips (v/gf), chicken and three-bean chili with cheese, three-bean chili with peppers and mushrooms (V)

Dessert: Crunchy top lemon cake

Day 10: Mixed leaf and tomato salad with balsamic vinaigrette (V, v/gf), creamy chicken and potato bake with cheesy breadcrumb topping, creamy leek and potato bake with cheesy breadcrumb topping (V), potatoes, leeks and mixed vegetables (v/gf). 

Dessert: peanut butter chocolate cookies and oat coconut cookies

Day 11: Homemade beef and chicken burgers, turkey burgers, veggie burgers (V), vegan burgers (v/gf), oven baked fries, condiments and toppings for self-assembly (burger buns, tomatoes, lettuce, red onion, pickles, cheese singles mustard and ketchup).

Dessert: Zesty bread and butter pudding

Day 12: Homemade vegetable spring rolls with Sriracha-lime-vinegar dipping sauce (V), Asian-style chicken fried rice with shredded egg, fried and green onions, mixed vegetable fried rice with egg, fried and green onions (V), mixed vegetable fried rice with green onions (v/gf)

Dessert: Moist chocolate cake with Belgian chocolate ganache

THAT'S A WRAP!:)

Louiza's Bridal Shower Tea Party

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

Sam Tan's Kitchen caters home-cooked food made from scratch for just about anything, from intimate romantic dinners to low-budget film shoots to canapé-style receptions. To enquire for your next event, drop me a line at samtanskitchen@gmail.com :)

A few weeks ago my actress friend Ri got in touch to ask if I would cater a bridal shower she was in charge of organizing for her friend. We traded ideas on the phone, and I scribbled down thematic keywords including "pretty", "nibbles", and "cute", which then helped me draw up a suggested menu of 26 appropriate bitesize options and a range of centerpiece cakes to choose from.

After some discussion, I'm glad to say Ri and her fellow bridesmaids settled on some excellent sweet and savory selections, as well as my signature rose buttercream cake :)

And so behold, the "cute pretty nibbles" presented today at Sam Tan's Kitchen's first bridal shower tea party! Thank you Ri for hiring me and congratulations again to the beautiful bride-to-be Louiza! 

The menu (clockwise from top right): 

Chocolate fudge cake with vanilla buttercream roses, London Almond truffles, Malaysian coconut crepes, assorted sandwiches (roast vegetable and Swiss cheese, tuna scallion, black forest ham and muenster), mini butter shortbread hearts, bitesize sausage rolls.

Zev and Eliza's Engagement Party

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

With Mr. and soon-to-be Mrs. Lebowitz

In November 2013, a lovely young couple named Zev Lebowitz and Eliza Quanbeck emailed me out of the blue to enquire if I would be willing to cater a full selection of traditional Malaysian dishes for their upcoming engagement party of about 100 guests. It was the first request of this scale that I had ever received, and I was both surprised and more than a little tickled that two New Yorkers who neither knew me personally nor were Malaysian themselves had a) found my little blog online randomly somehow (thanks Google!) b) trusted I was the real deal based solely on my food porn pictures c) seemed to have such a passion for and in-depth knowledge of local dishes I had grown up with and d) actually wanted to pay me to cook the stuff for their friends and family!

Some back-and-forth later, it emerged that Zev and Eliza had just concluded an epic 14-month world tour (check out their fun food/travel blog A Feast Afoot), during which a month was spent eating and attending cooking classes in Kuala Lumpur. To my delight they not only were familiar with but specifically requested rendang, ayam goreng berempah, sayur lodeh and kuih amongst other traditional delicacies, and before I knew it I had agreed with a resounding "yes!" and was standing in their Upper West Side apartment cooking a mini trial taster dinner of 10 different appetizers, mains and desserts.

The food went down well, and we eventually settled on the following menu for the big day on 8 March 2014:

The savouries:

Mini karipap (spiral curry puffs), popiah (fresh vegetable spring rolls), ayam goreng berempah (Malaysian spiced fried chicken), Nyonya acar awak (spicy vegetable pickle) with rice, beef rendang (dry coconut curry) with rice

The sweets: 

Fah sang peng (peanut cookies), kuih ketayap/ dadar/ gulung (pandan crepes with caramelised coconut filling), sago gula melaka (tapioca pearl pudding with palm sugar and coconut milk)

Now, let's get real.

I was honoured and excited, but also mildly terrified. Never in my life had I catered for so many people at once before; 20+ on a low-budget film set maybe, perhaps 50 in a potluck setting with friends where everyone brings food and no one holds it against you if your dish sucks. Absolutely not something like this, where I am solely and fully responsible for planning, prepping, and plating nine different dishes into little canapé size morsels that are tasty, hygienically safe to eat and look pretty, for 100 guests who have never met me and have no reason to expect anything less than restaurant quality.

On top of that, it was a school week where I could only cook in the evenings after I got home from class and rehearsals. AND my kitchen, to put it mildly, is modestly sized with very little countertop space and no professional equipment. AND I live in a 5th floor walk up and don't own a car (ever tried grocery shopping for 100 people and carrying it up the stairs? Who needs a gym!).

Ambitious much? Insanely so.

I do love a good challenge though, and thankfully with adequate amounts of pre-planning, detailed lists and the willingness to forego sleep in order to stir curries on a stove til 5am, everything somehow worked out! Thank goodness for my ever-patient fiance Ari, who would help me roll hundreds of fah sang peng and lug incredibly heavy bags of ingredients (eight pounds of jicama, five litres of coconut cream etc... ) all the way up from Chinatown via the crowded subway. Thank heavens too for my loving and tolerant roommates Adam and G, who didn't complain for one second about my noisy blender grinding into the night, or the perpetual pungency of spice pastes filling the air, or the fact that they couldn't really make any meals for themselves the whole week because I took up the entire fridge and stovetop. G even helped us carry our things into a cab across the street on the day, when my poor planning caused some bags to break and made it impossible for us to juggle everything! I love you all, you guys make my life.

So here below, I share with you some pictorial proof that this actually happened. Thank you Zev and Eliza once again for the leap of faith you took in hiring me, I had a lot of fun and hope you did too!

THE PREQUEL

Step 1: Make detailed shopping list/ timeline of tasks for the week leading up to March 8th

Step 2: Buy gigantic 16-quart pot from Amazon. Worry about where to store it later.

Step 3: Use pot for everything (like making rendang in advance).

Dough for 300 mini curry puffs ready to be shaped

Quick scribbles of my own recipes in shorthand to refer to in the kitchen

(with quantities multiplied for 100 pax)

SHOW NIGHT

Frying the karipap freshly on site. Yes that is a Hard Rock Kuala Lumpur T-shirt. Represent!:)

Some of the plated dishes ready to roll. Clockwise from top left; acar on rice, mini karipap, beef rendang on rice, fresh popiah

Assembling the bitesize ayam goreng. That's Dan Williams behind me,
who led the team of servers for the night

My trusty kitchen elf/ slave/ general helpful fiance. The model of intense concentration as he assembles the shots of sago :)

Friday pops by to say goodnight! (Or maybe he was just intrigued by the curious smells)

Catering for the London Film School project "The Waiting Room"

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

Since I first posted about cooking for low-budget films and the importance of feeding your cast and crew well here, I have received numerous requests by budding producers both in NYC and London asking if I could feed their teams at an affordable rate. Unfortunately I have often been unable to fulfil these requests, either because I am busy with class or because I happen to be in the wrong country at the wrong time!

Last week however, the timing worked out so that I was able to cater for four days on "The Waiting Room", a short film project by students at the London Film School. I thought I would share some pictures of the basic hearty lunch plus dessert I provided them throughout the shoot.

Thank you to producer Tara Verma for getting in touch and to the fun and appreciative crew- it's always nice to cook for nice people! :)

Day 1: Beef ragu lasagne (plus vegetarian version) and dressed salad.

Dessert: Carrot banana cake with cream cheese frosting. 

A HUGE hit this was- I guess low-budget films rarely provide good desserts!

Day 2: Malaysian Nasi Goreng (fried rice) for the mains...

 ... and sticky apple cake for dessert. With a teeny tiny hint of booze. 

Possibly why it got even more 'oohs' and 'aahs' than yesterday's carrot cake :)

Day 3: Sausage and butter bean casserole with garlic and herb bread. 

Mushroom and chunky vegetable version for the non meat-eaters. Warming comfort food for a chilly day.

Dessert: Crunchy top lemon cake.

And last but not least...

Day 4: Olive oil pasta with sausage, bacon and mushroom

Dessert: Chunky chocolate brownies- finally one of the chocoholics!

What you get when you ask hungry eaters to "look candid" while stuffing their face.

Lead actor Edward Hayes-Neary, caught eating more than his share of brownies by producer Christine!

Catering for Student Film "Y3llow"

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

Sam Tan's Kitchen caters home-cooked food made from scratch for just about anything, from intimate romantic dinners to low-budget film shoots to canapé-style receptions. If you are a filmmaker looking to inspire your crew through their stomachs, please get in touch at samtanskitchen@gmail.com (and drop a comment here in cast it goes to Spam). 

A well-fed film crew is a happy, efficient, productive film crew. Whilst most student, indie and low-budget films don't provide anything more than a measly sandwich to see you through your 12-hour day, my belief is that good food provides good motivation for good work, particularly when the crew are working on an expenses-only or low-paid basis.

Thank you to Yee Sien from the University of Westminster for hiring me to feed her cast and crew throughout the 5 days that she shot her graduation short "Y3llow"- it's been a pleasure and I am thrilled that your team found my food a suitable reward for their hard work! :)

Catering on "Y3llow"- The Menu

DAY 1

Buttered herby couscous

Dessert of the day- chunky chocolate brownies

Breakfast (on-the-go):

Egg, bacon and tomato roll

Vegetarian option- Egg and tomato roll

Orange and apple juice

Lunch (packed):

Grilled honey lemon marinated chicken chunks

V option- Roasted butternut squash, courgette and mushrooms

Buttered herby couscous

Crisp leaf salad with dressing

Dessert- Chunky chocolate brownies

Tea:

Selection of finger sandwiches (egg mayo, tuna and ham)

Mixed crisps

*Hot tea/coffee, bottled water and mixed biscuits supplied throughout the day

DAY 2

Beef ragu lasagne- forgot to photograph it on the day so here's one made previously!

Hot dessert- bread and butter pudding

Breakfast (hot):

Bakes beans

White and wholemeal toast with butter

Scrambled eggs

Orange and apple juice

Lunch:

Beef ragu lasagne

V option- vegetarian lasagne

Garlic bread

Crisp leaf salad with dressing

Dessert- Hot bread and butter pudding

*Hot tea/coffee and bottled water supplied throughout the day

DAY 3

Breakfast:

Crunchy strawberry granola

Cornflakes

Baked beans

White and wholemeal toast with butter

Buttered hot cross buns

Egg and tomato baps

Lunch:

Chicken and bacon casserole with olive oil, potatoes and mushrooms

V option- Quorn sausage casserole with courgettes, potatoes and mushrooms

Bruschetta salad (grilled bread chunks, tomato salsa and tender lettuce)

Mixed crisps

Dessert- Sponge cake

Dinner:

Cheeseburgers with tomato and lettuce

V option- Quorn cheeseburgers with tomato and lettuce

Finger sandwiches

Mixed crisps

*Hot tea/coffee, bottled water and mixed biscuits supplied throughout the day

DAY 4

Breakfast:

Crunchy strawberry granola

Cornflakes

Baked beans

White and wholemeal toast with butter

Orange and apple juice

Lunch:

Lincolnshire sausage tomato stew with bacon and mushroom

V option- Quorn sausage tomato stew with onions and mushroom

Buttered herb couscous with raisins

Mixed crisps

Dessert- Chunky chocolate brownies

Tea:

Mini scones with strawberry jam and vanilla cream

Selection of finger sandwiches- egg mayo, tuna sweetcorn and ham

Mixed crisps

*Hot tea/coffee, bottled water and Coke supplied throughout the day

DAY 5

Breakfast (on-the-go):

Egg mayo and bacon toasted rolls

V option- egg mayo with shredded carrot toasted roll

Lunch (on-the-go):

Sandwiches with shredded ham and spring onion, egg mayo with bacon bits, tomato, lettuce and cucumber

V option- Sandwich with sliced Quorn sausage, egg mayo, tomato, lettuce and cucumber

Shredded ham and spring onion salad filling

The sandwich assembly line

Tea:

Mini pizza toasts with roasted pepper, tomato puree and cheese

Iced finger buns

Mixed crisps

*Hot tea/coffee and bottled water supplied throughout the day

The director eating her lunch- thanks Yee Sien!:)