here are few things more rewarding to a parent than reading a fine review of his son's work. The accompanying article was written by real professionals about a typical event catered by our son Alan and staged by his wife, Heidi. They are one wonderful team.

Feeding some of the most self-conscious people in the world, especially on their big night, is a daunting task, as is filling the chef clogs previously occupied by Wolfgang Puck. But chef Alan Jackson has now successfully catered four Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremonies — including the one that took place last Sunday. So exactly what do you serve celebs such as Jennifer Hudson, Helen Mirren, Eddie Murphy, Forest Whitaker, and Alec Baldwin, all of whom won awards?

This year, something told Jackson to stick close to familiar favorites with a twist. Collectively dubbed the "Hollywood Antipasto Plate," the victuals were on display and ready for their close-up (my fellow journalists and I could look but we couldn't touch!) a few days before the awards. Nestled onto one plate in smallish portions were minted chèvre-stuffed lamb rib eye glittering with green tomato jam and resting atop a drizzled mint "paint," made with mint and simple syrup (sauces need to be stiff, lest they become runny and unsightly for the camera); jumbo shrimp mounted like a jewel in a ring of horseradish aspic; buttermilk chicken breast (cooked sous vide, then lightly pan-fried), served with a square of corn bread panade with red pepper chutney and fried green tomato; and finally a Caesar salad contained in a sort of "Box" made of garlic brioche.

"Culinarily, these don't quite go together," mused Jackson, whose crew of 40 worked ten hours a day for a week in his 10,000-square-foot kitchen to prepare the fete. "For plating, odd numbers are better than even numbers, but the SAG committee overseeing the food always wants four selections on the plate, so it's kind of a challenge."

So is arriving at those four small entrées. Each year, Jackson presents the 16-person SAG food committee with three variations for each category of food — fish, chicken, meat, vegetable — in a wide array of presentations. The final four dishes are culled from this group. But though it sounds like trying to please a culinary politburo, Jackson says he usually hits on the winning combination with the first plate.

So after all his hard work, is Jackson crushed to see stars pushing the food around their plates so they look sleek on camera? "Hollywood is a funny place in the sense that the 364 other days of the year, they're very diet-conscious," says Jackson. "But on a night like tonight, they generally already fit in their outfits so they're going to go all out." Depending on where they're sitting, that is. Appetites can be measured in ascending order as you move from the front rows where the stars sit to the rear where the behind-the-scenes people are relegated. So when Jackson wants to know how the meal is going over, he looks to the back of the room. "The people in the front rows will move things around and take a bite of a bread stick. It's the crew people and the agents you'll see cleaning their plates."

As it turned out, Jackson's haute-meets-down-home approach whetted even the finickiest of appetites. Exhausted from days of doing double time in preparation for the awards, Jackson headed home as soon as the plates were on the tables. "I got a call from my floor manager, and I thought, 'Oh no, something's gone wrong.' But she said, "You're not going to believe this! Even the starlets are cleaning their plates!"

— Martin Booe

http://www.epicurious.com/features/news/dailydish/020207