Chef Klaus came to our house for the third time in six weeks to cook MY Birthday Dinner. As usual he was here with plenty of time to spare. He brought his lovely wife Nancy with him, because I insisted. It took some persuasion, but he finally agreed. While he cooked our customary weekday dinner, Chicken Breast Marsala, (we just love it) I showed Nancy our house and toy’s. Klaus proceeded to get ready for Dinner Service. He made Tomato Roses as garnish for the Creamy Cucumber Salad, finished the Sweet ‘n Sour Red Cabbage, cleaned and blanched the fresh whole Green Beans, made the Potato Pancake mix, sliced the Sauerbraten and put it into an incredible rich, brown sauce to slowly heat it up. He did the same to the Beef Rouladen so everything got hot at the same time. By 3:45 pm he crisped the Sour Dough Rolls, pulled the chilled salad plates from the fridge, lined them with crisp Butter Lettuce and spooned the Cucumber Salad on it and placed a Tomato Rose in front of the salad. Lovely. He pulled the Hard Rolls and placed them in a Napkin lined bowl, placed them together wit Butter Rosettes he made and the Cucumber Salad o the Dinner Table. While we ate he cooked the Potato Pancakes, heated the Spaetzle in butter and sauteed Bacon and Onions together with the Green Beans. He removed the empty salad plates along with the salad forks and proceeded to plate the dinner. He opened a bottle of Red Zinfandel and let it breath while he served the dinner (me first). Joe, my husband tasted the wine and Chef Klaus poured it foe all of us. (again me first) What a dinner it was. Our friends were quite impressed so were we even so we had excellent dinners from Chef Klaus before. After he cleared the table, he brought out My Birthday Cake, a traditional Black Forest Cake, made with a Cookie Crust and Tart Cherries, not Cherry Pie filling. The flavor was wonderful. We sang “Happy Birthday” and he cut and served the cake. While we finished, he rinsed all the dishes and put them into the dishwasher, handwashed and dryed the special Silverware, cleaned and wiped down the stove, counters and sink. Too bad we are moving to Delaware next week. We hope we will see Chef Klaus again. It turned into a Friendship. He is a true professional and a great Chef.
