Perfect entertainment

My niece Cynthia Nakpil — well, she really isn’t my niece but she might as well be — called and invited me to dinner to sample some outstanding Australian wines. Hmmph, something inside me said, “Australian wines!” I remembered being in Honolulu 34 years ago with an ex-husband, well, he wasn’t really my husband but might as well have been since we had a son. I was out on the hotel balcony getting steadily drunk on a bottle of vodka while he was in the bedroom getting steadily drunk on a bottle of scotch. We had decided to part ways and the fact that we were both getting steadily drunk should have told us that we did not really look forward to it.

“Should we order dinner?” he asked. I nodded. “I think we should order champagne,” he added.

“Make it Australian,” I said. “We are celebrating a divorce.” Then we looked at each other and laughed through our tears. What could I do? Thirty-four years ago, Australia did not have a good reputation for wines, much less for champagne.

But tonight we were at the Brasserie Boheme of the Picasso Hotel and I was to have a dry run for a dinner she and Christine Bautista, her partner, had organized. She wanted my opinion on the whole scene. You see, while it has been long forgotten, I do have an outstanding palate for food and wine, only my life has been like a roller coaster ride, leveling out close to the end — around now. Acquiring my palate was part of one of my life’s high points. So, anyway, we sat down to dinner and had the most fabulous white wine I have ever tasted. I don’t know what it’s called, but it comes from an Australian group called The Six Masters, a group of small vineyards in New South Wales, that have banded together to make this superb white wine. This wine was the high point of the evening for me, followed by the food, which was deliciously contributed by Tom Hines, the restaurant’s operations manager.

It began with a shrimp ceviche (kinilaw in Tagalog) and a small cup of cauliflower soup followed by a salmon dish. Let me step back and say I have grown to dislike smoked salmon, not because there is something wrong with it, but I think my taste buds are tired of it. This salmon dish was outstanding and its flavors blended beautifully with the white wine, which was crisp, cool, smooth as silk, no edges. That’s how I describe wines. I don’t like the standard description used by more recent wine critics that compare wine to fruits and whatever. I just like to describe how wine feels to me.

Then came the meat dish, which was a mix of roast lamb and roast beef, both cooked pink, both offered wonderful flavors. I had comments about the red wine served. It had too sour an aftertaste and was not the perfect wine for the dish. We also had discussions about the dessert and the wine that should be served with it. So the dinner passed its first exam, but is subject to a second pass. Okay, I thought, I think I like this role. I think I am becoming an examiner of dinners. Imagine, I who stopped eating proper dinners since I decided to live alone, now will begin to examine proper dinners complete with wine. How kind life is!

“What are you going to do with these fabulous dinners?” I asked Cynthia.

“I want to sell them to whoever will buy. Tita, you know I can organize wonderful dinners, match the food and wine with the atmosphere, bring in violins or rock bands, I can do anything and plan wonderful parties.”

“Yes, you can,” I said, remembering. Then a bell rang in my head. “I know. You can sell this concept to company presidents. There are so many in this country who don’t really know how to entertain, who don’t have the imagination needed to entertain memorably and well or they don’t have the time. Offer them your services. You can offer any menu complete with wine and the right atmosphere. You can set up a dinner for 12 in an old Filipino mansion and mix in some history or a dinner for two on a rooftop or garden somewhere for a highly confidential meeting. You can entertain excellently while making yourself invisible. There is a need for such a service here. All they have to do is call you about a week in advance to get it going. Address only company presidents because they have the allowances to pay for such an exercise and perfect entertaining is part of being a wonderful president or board chairman.”

I could tell from the way light shone in her eyes that she loved the idea. “That’s the way you market,” I said. First you must define as best you can which segment to address. Don’t ever say I will sell to whoever wants to buy. Sit back, study and define who will want to buy, who needs it most, who will understand that he has to entertain this way. I worked in a multinational company and this was part of my function — to entertain for the president when he needed to put his best foot forward. If there is one president who needs it, believe me, there are at least 10 more out there. How many clients do you need anyway to call yourself a success?”

So let me help, if you want more information, call Cynthia Nakpil at 09189342890 or 0917792-6900 or e-mail her at events2c@gmail.com. It will be worth your while.

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