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Jefferson Hotel Executive Banquet Chef Patrick Ehemann is preparing for his 14th Fur Ball.
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Strips of Japanese eggplant for the terrine
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Ehemann (right), Chef de Cuisine Brice Gervais (left) and Nikki Gregory prepare for the Fur Ball.
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Sprawled across the prep station in The Jefferson Hotel kitchen is a cornucopia of mushrooms, carrots, Japanese eggplant, radishes, parsnips, broccoli, turnips and rutabaga, all contributing to the fresh, crisp scent lingering in the air.
Bruleed onions are stacked on a multilevel metal tray, while line cooks methodically chop and peel, the knives hitting the cutting boards in rhythmic motion. On a white board is a reminder that the Richmond SPCA’s 20th annual Fur Ball on Nov. 3, one of the largest events The Jefferson Hotel kitchen staff will tackle this year, is mere days away.
Executive Banquet Chef Patrick Ehemann is at ease despite the impending spectacle. He’s a Fur Ball veteran, this year marking his 14th preparing and executing the event menu.
Typically, when you enter The Jefferson, Richmond’s historic, nearly 125-year-old, five-star institution, you won’t hear the jangle of a dog collar or see a wagging tail. But for nearly two decades, hundreds of guests and their furry friends have gathered at The Jefferson for RSPCA’s flagship fundraising event and dinner.
Robin Starr, CEO of the Richmond SPCA, founded the Fur Ball 20 years ago. At the time, the shelter had a high euthanasia rate. Starr believed Richmond could do better, and in 2002 RSPCA transformed into a no-kill shelter.
But Starr knew the few dollars stuffed in a Ziploc bag that passed for the nonprofit's reserve funds weren’t enough to keep her vision alive. Fur Ball was born, and now the event raises half a million dollars each year for the RSPCA through the Cinderella Fund.
During the Fur Ball, Ehemann and his culinary team will plate 400 vegan and vegetarian meals at once, a feat that requires a delicate balance of speed, experience and fluidity in the kitchen.
Chef de Cuisine Brice Gervais is on his 12th Fur Ball. Culinary longevity for the event means a positive familiarity for the staff, but it also requires ingenuity to keep the menu fresh year after year.
Four months prior to the Fur Ball, Ehemann, Gervais, Pastry Chef Sarah Ayyash (a veteran of nine Fur Balls), the catering manager and other Jefferson Hotel chefs review menus from previous events. Research is conducted, new trends and fads explored. They turn to cookbooks by icons of vegetarian cuisine including Alice Waters and Deborah Madison, check the internet, and consult with RSPCA planners.
“I try to create plates that are what I want to eat, what I think is appealing,” says Ehemann, who is fond of making dishes that are rich and luxurious, words that may not traditionally come to mind when envisioning vegan or vegetarian fare.
But despite wanting to diversify the offerings each year, Ehemann's established mantra is “Don’t complicate it too much.”
“Since we are doing courses, I think of a balanced meal like a good album, not a hit single.”
Roasting, basting, smoking, curing and focusing on seasonality are all part of the preparation and process.
“Most guests are expecting something different, we often take that opportunity to introduce flavors or items that they may not regularly enjoy," he says.
Ehemann and his team create a vast canvas of flavors for the three-course culinary extravaganza and four to six hors d'oeuvres.
This year, he is most excited to work with agar, a substitute for gelatin made from seaweed that possesses powerful binding techniques without altering flavors. It is perfect for a vegetarian meal and a mushroom, carrot and leek terrine — similar to a pâté — one of two entrees at the Fur Ball.
Crafting the terrine is a multistep project. A vegetable stock is made and placed in a CVap machine, where it steeps at 185 degrees overnight, allowing the flavors to concentrate. Ehemann, the taste tester, checks the stock multiple times to evaluate its progress.
Four mushroom varietals used for the terrine, shiitake, royal trumpet, beech and oyster, are introduced to fire then water, first seared then poached. Three types of carrots, white, orange and purple, add vibrant pops of color to the dish.
Instead of a typical aioli or remoulade, aquafaba, a liquid from cooked chickpeas, produces a rich sauce that pairs with crispy chickpea rondels, the second entree, a play on crab cakes accented with purple cabbage slaw, orange zest-glazed sweet potatoes and smoky baba fonduta, a vegetarian take on fondue.
The last culinary element of the evening, dessert conceived by Pastry Chef Sara Ayyash, is always a surprise.
“The anticipation is like Christmas morning, but better since you get to eat it,” says Ayyash, a proud pup owner who finds it easy to imagine creative desserts, which each year are based on RSPCA’s current mascot.
“We’ve learned to trust her because it always turns out beautifully,” says Starr.
Ayyash and her sweet crew of six spend approximately 200 hours preparing over 400 individual pastries that require 85 pounds of sugar and 20 pounds of confetti sprinkles.
RSPCA rescues 4,000 animals every year, 3,500 of which are in need of significant veterinary care. Starr says the Fur Ball has “grown utterly essential to our work and now allows us to provide essential life-saving benefits to thousands of homeless animals.”
The 2018 Fur Ball is sold out, but raffle tickets are available for purchase to support RSPCA.
