Dv8 Kitchen participated in the Cardinal Hill Easter Seals 15th Annual Wild Game Dinner on January 26th.  It was an honor for Dv8 to be included with many locally renowned chefs and restaurants offering wild game culinary selections for the attendees.

Rob and Diane asked if David and I would like to help serve the entree they created for the event. What a better way to spend our date night than helping Rob, Diane and Chef Hoang contribute to such a worthwhile cause? So a resounding “yes” was the answer.

I am not sure if they knew what they were getting themselves into by corralling this amateur duo to “help”.  We went to set up and noticed that many of the other chefs brought their dishes prepared and added warming fuels to keep them hot.

Not Dv8. Chef Hoang and Rob had the vision of a “kitchen station” where we would assemble our pheasant sausage, dandelion greens, apricot mustard and goat cheese all on top of our homemade southern biscuit sliders.  Sounds amazing right? It was!

Oh, I forgot to mention we, that is David and myself, would be adding a sous vide style quail egg on top of the goat cheese. The eggs would need to be peeled and then placed on top as the final step to this delectable offering.

There is so much to love about Diane and Rob Perez, but what I love most is their utmost faith in God and people. They totally let go of the reigns that night and put David and me in charge of peeling the beautiful and delicate quail eggs…the final step of the assembly.  The most important step in my opinion.  Being surrounded by culinary artists, we instantly felt the pressure of being out of our comfort zone.

David and I hovered over 500 eggs peeling and individually placing them on each slider. I must say we had quite the learning curve. At first it took us what seemed like forever to get just one egg peeled and properly placed. Patience was demonstrated by all.  David and I were nervous and a bit giddy.  Diane, Rob and Hoang were encouraging and full of laughter.  They would not let us give up…even when we had a line of people waiting to be served.

The attendees remarked how they enjoyed witnessing the work station preparation and were very complimentary of the delicious culinary delight. It was great for us all to visit with some old friends and make new ones. David even got to meet one of his idols, Tim Farmer, former host of Kentucky Afield.

On this wild game night, not only did David and I learn to peel sous vide style quail eggs (under pressure), but we learned that, given the opportunity, even these old dogs could learn new tricks. Thank you to Diane, Rob and Hoang for the opportunity and faith you placed in us.

Dv8 was awarded the Judge’s Circle of Excellence! For David and me the true reward was the “wild night” of learning, laughing and fellowship.

Melissa