Dontaye Ball of Good Foods Catering can do a lot more than just smoke a piece of pork, and wants you to know it.   When I heard “All Bacon Dinner” I immediately thought of heart clogging, one note, smoky, greasy food.  What I found couldn’t be farther from that imagine grease spill.  Dontaye deftly uses bacon as seasoning, spice and fat to enhance a well rounded, surprisingly classical dinner.  His all-bacon dinner isn’t just a pile of smoked pork (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) but here his aspirations aim quite a bit higher.  His meal is collection of perfectly seasoned food, bolstered by a great collection of seasonal veggies. It’s an invitation into his home and kitchen, to sit around the table with this mother, family and friends and enjoy a great community meal.

So, join me, Dontaye, his Sous Rhea and front of house Kamael for a underground dinner in Dontaye’s home?

We started out with a “micro breakfast” – which turned out to be the only course with a straight up piece of bacon on it.  The poached egg was perfectly cooked, and it was a nice, simple way to start the meal.

Micro Good Foods Breakfast: Poached brown farm egg, seared good foods house made bacon, and toast with a bacon brown sugar butter

Next up was soup – Dontaye explained that there was no additional salt added – everything came from the bacon. It was silky smooth.

Bacon Corn “Chowder” : Good Foods House-Made Bacon, corn, potatoes, cream, fennel

Ahhh, a much needed salad course.  The peaches were fresh and vibrant, with a hint of carmel from grilling.  The dressing was extremely acidic, a nice offset to the heft of the bacon.

Bacon Spinach Salad: Baby Willie farms spinach, grilled twin girl farm peaches, shaved red onion, goat’s cheese with a bacon dressing

One of my favorite courses. The scallops are well seared, but it was the veggies and bacon sherry jus that stole the show.  And that’s what i loved about this dinner: the veggies of summer really showed through, which isn’t something you’d expect to say about a BBQ guy.

Seared Dayboat Scallops: Fresh Dayboat Sea Scallops early summer squash, corn, cherry tomatoes and bacon- sherry jus

I’m salivating just thinking about this chicken now.  It was mind-numbing juicy, which Dontaye attributed to brining it.  It was also great to see a bit more of his BBQ side show through here with the southern greens.

Roasted Rocky Jr Chicken Breast: Rocky jr chicken, bacon braised summer greens and a bacon bread pudding

Lastly, we finished with dessert.  I was a bit underwhelmed by the pie tart – it felt like it needed just a bit more “umph!” – but it hardly mattered with the the mountain of fruit on top, off set with the whipped cream.  A great summer finish to the meal.

Peaches and Cream: Fresh peaches and figs with mascarpone cream and almond bacon tart shell

And on that light, summer fruit note, we were done.  We gathered our things, and waddled back outside where it was unseasonably warm for 1 AM.   Yes, it was of course great bacon, but it was well balanced against the seasonal fruit and veggies.  While the allure of underground dinners is undeniable, this was one the the first ones I’ve been to to really back up the hype with great cooking technique and professional touch at every opportunity.  Case in point: when you got up to use the restroom, Dontaye would be folding your napkin for you when you returned.  That’s more than you get from most underground dinners, and way more than you get from most BBQ. Which is exactly what Good Foods Catering aims for.

Tags: Bacon, Dontaye Ball, Good Foods, Underground DInner

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.