An amuse bouche is a simple and elegant way to impress your clientele. The phrase, amuse bouche is French for “mouth amuser”. Its made special by the chef as an additional enticement to your guests’ appetite. Chef’s love the chance to show off their skill for crafting flavor profiles. Especially when that profile pairs really well with a specific wine or menu progression. The most important thing about this special course is to keep the size small and to be sure that it is only one bite of food that explodes with many different flavors, or just one that is very refined and well seasoned.

The home cook can explore this by reading up a bit on the subject and checking out cookbooks, like this one by Rick Tramonta ,”Amuse-Bouche”. This attractively layed out and expertly photographed book gives tons of examples and ideas to experiment with. Something I tried recently was a huge hit with fans of the Italian favorite, pasta carbonara. I used a yummy cheese and spinach stuffed tortilini, tossed it with an egg based alfredo style sauce  made with heavy cream, butter and parmesan cheese then topped it with smokey crumbled bacon and fresh pea shoots. If you have questions about the use of the amuse bouche or need some help pairing ingredients please feel free to Ask the Chef.

Tortilini carbonara amuse, mmm. This was a huge hit at the New Years eve bash.