People started urging us to go into business for ourselves, and we realized there was a demand for a high-end catering business here. So we decided we would go to clients' homes, prepare lavish meals and meet wonderful people. As You Like It was born.

We soon discovered that our clients were no slouches when it came to entertaining. One told me, "I'd just like to have a simple dinner party. Nothing too fancy. Perhaps we can do a Tuscan-style supper equivalent to that which might be served in the vineyards of California." Hmm . simplicity at its best!

We toiled to meet their aspirations. They were paying us well, and they deserved that. It often surprised me that money was no object when it came to entertaining. Prices that would have made a non-Naples resident weak in the knees were met with a smile and a handshake.

Our motto was: "Nothing is too big or too small." We would soon learn to eat those words as we scrambled to feed 100 people out of two coolers and a couple of sauté pans. But the majority of our clients preferred to entertain on an intimate scale, and most events ranged from eight to 20 people. We also received calls from clients who wanted to surprise their wives with a cozy anniversary dinner for two. Or we would get the call from a wife who had an aversion to cooking but wanted a home-cooked meal to celebrate her husband's birthday. On more than one occasion we were asked to remain a silent partner, as the host preferred to take credit for the culinary delights. We would drop the food off, and the client would arrange the entrées on his or her own personal plates and platters, and no one was the wiser.

TESSA, EITHE R GO WITH SUBHEAD: COFFEE WITH YOU HAND SOAP? OR IF YOU DON'T WANT A SUB, EACH STORY COULD HAVE AN INITIAL CAP.WHATEVER YOU THJNK IS BETTER

One couple I met was a bit naïve when it came to entertaining. They were nervous and wanted everything to be just right. They had a small home, but with a lovely outdoor entertaining area that would have been perfect for a summer soiree. There was even partial covering in case of rain. However, they were afraid that people might get wet if it did rain, and they insisted they wanted the party indoors despite the limited space.

I suggested a buffet, which would have allowed the guests to wander freely inside and out, but a sit-down it was. The hostess was a lovely woman with a strong will. She suggested clearing the furniture out of her bedroom and setting up tables and chairs in there. The bathroom could be used for the coffee machine and cups, and wine could be kept in the bathtub for easy access. I tried to dissuade her, but to no avail.

So off I went to make this work. My husband was in the kitchen frantically arranging lobster tails over a bed of greens for a party of 30 in a kitchen not much larger than a walk-in closet. I turned the bathroom into a makeshift bar to the best of my ability.

When the guests arrived, we greeted them with smiles and led them into the bedroom for dinner. While the courses were being served, guests would intermittently arrive in the bathroom to request a drink. But on more than one occasion, I was asked to excuse myself as nature called.

Cold Poached Florida Lobster Salad with Aioli

Serves 4

4 lobster tails, medium sized

1/4 cup pickling spice

1 cup dry white wine

1 lemon, cut in half

1 orange, cut in half

Onions, carrots and celery, equal parts

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs parsley

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1/4 cup cognac

Bring all ingredients (except lobster and cognac) together in large stock pot of boiling water. Simmer for 30 minutes; add lobster tails.

Simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes; drain and cool. Remove meat from shell and cut each tail into medallions. Lightly drizzle cognac over the meat.

Garlic Aioli

2 egg yolks

3-4 cloves of roasted garlic, mashed into paste

1/2 ounce red or white vinegar

1/2 ounce water

1 tablespoon dry mustard

8 ounces vegetable oil

8 ounces olive oil, extra virgin

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon juice, fresh squeezed, to taste

Combine the yolks, garlic, vinegar and mustard in a bowl. Mix together until mixture is slightly frothy. Add oils a little at a time and consistently beat with a whisk until they are incorporated and the mayo is thick. (This can also be done with a hand mixer.) Adjust flavor with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve on the side over a bed of mixed greens.

SOMETHING FISHY?

Gulf Shore Boulevard is home to many beautiful apartments with extravagant amenities. However, when the host is unfamiliar with those amenities, problems can arise for the caterer. At one evening party, as we were unloading our coolers and cambros (hot boxes for keeping food warm), I turned the oven on to heat some hors d'oeuvres before the guests arrived. After about five minutes, I returned to the oven, but to my dismay, found no heat. As I looked inside, I was shocked to see the oven manuals still sitting on one of the racks.

I called the hostess over and asked her how long she had lived in the apartment. She proclaimed that she lived here seasonally but had been coming down for eight years. I asked if she had ever used the oven. "Oh, no," she said. "We go to the club or out to dinner. Why should we cook when we have wonderful people such as you?" Although I appreciated the compliment, I wished that she at least had tested the oven. I explained the situation and she suggested that we could use the building's kitchen, located on the ground floor. The problem was that it was 22 stories below.

Guests were arriving and they would be expecting food. My husband raced to the elevator and searched the parking area until he found a rolling luggage cart. That luggage cart was a lifesaver. We carted sauté pans, pots, sheet pans and utensils downstairs, and packed up our pieces of pompano.

In the kitchen on the 22nd floor, I attended to the salad and dessert, running down occasionally to check on hubby, who was juggling hors d'oeuvres, baking pompano and sautéing veggies in a Suzy-Homemaker-style kitchen. While there, I would pick up a batch of the heated appetizers and quickly roll them onto the elevator and back into the apartment.

As dinner came to a close, the hostess suggested that it would also be a good idea for us to use the dishwasher downstairs, as the majority of the plates and glasses had been borrowed from that area and would be easier for us to put away. Once again, we loaded up the luggage rack and clanked our way down to the ground floor with plates and glasses galore. Of course, the service elevator was out of order, so we were traveling with residents. Some seemed amused; others less than happy to be riding with pieces of leftover fish.

Old Florida-Style Pompano Encrusted in Rock Salt

Serves 4

4 whole pompano

Rock salt or ice-cream salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use four tin loaf pans, four inches deep. Pour one inch of rock salt in bottom of each pan. Wash out whole pompano with 3/4 cup vinegar mixed with two cups of cold water. Without cutting off heads or tails, lay them on top of the salt. (If they're too long for the pan, cut off the tails, but do not remove heads.)

Pour more salt to surround fish completely. Then cover with another inch of salt. Moisten salt with water. (The water will make salt solidify.) Place the pan in the oven and bake until water is evaporated, leaving the salt hard. Serve the pompano in the salt block with a hammer for each guest to crack open.

Serve with your favorite seafood dipping sauce and rice.

In the Pink

One sunny spring afternoon, I served at a private party for a bridal shower. A group of about 30 women attended. The theme was pink, and everything was pink-serving plates, clothes, even the food.

My husband made pink canapés of smoked salmon on white toast sprinkled with pink rose petals, and swirls of strawberry butter on wedges of Brie. The soup was shrimp bisque served in pink bowls with pink napkins. The entrée was homemade fettuccine dyed with pink food coloring and topped off with bits of lobster in a pink vodka sauce. For dessert, we served raspberry sorbet in pink glasses and champagne with framboise.

As the afternoon came to a close, I presented the hostess with her bill, drawing a deep breath as my queasiness from all that pink began to subside. The woman politely handed me a pink check signed in pink ink, and the whole affair ended rosily.

Smoked Salmon Canapés with Florida Onion Confit

Serves 4-6

1/2 pound-1 pound sliced, smoked salmon

4 Florida or Vidalia onions

10 slices of fine, thin white bread, toasted, crust off

Fresh dill

Capers

Sauté slices of onions with one teaspoon olive oil, one tablespoon butter and dash of salt. Use a heavy sauté pan to sweat onions over low heat until caramelized (this will take some time). Let cool. Take slice of salmon and teaspoon of onion confit and roll into a pinwheel shape. Place on top of toast point and garnish with fresh dill and/or capers.

The Osso Buco Dance

Osso buco can be made with either lamb or veal. For one party featuring this dish, my husband chose veal shanks simmered until moist and succulent.

We arrived confidently at the home of our clients toting our osso buco in large cambros. What had slipped our minds, however, was that sharp turn we had taken in our catering vehicle about three miles back. We opened the cambro in our client's immaculate white kitchen only to watch the succulent sauce pour out and start flowing toward the white carpet in the adjacent dining room.

My husband, although a wonderful chef, does not excel in these situations. Rather than springing into action and grabbing some towels, he began dancing up and down, yelling, "Oh, no, osso buco, very bad, very bad, osso buco, very bad!" One of our assistants grabbed a pile of towels from one of our clients' drawers and quickly threw them over the mess, which was within inches of meeting the carpet. Our assistant had saved the day and the osso buco was salvaged. However, from that moment on, my husband was called the Rain Man of Osso Buco.

Osso Buco Gremolada

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4 large veal shanks, 10-14 ounces each

Flour for dredging

4 tablespoons butter or a combination of butter and olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme

3/4 cup dry white wine

1 cup beef stock

Gremolada

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon minced orange zest

2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Tie butcher twine around the veal shanks. Select a large, ovenproof casserole that can later be covered. Dredge shanks in flour. When the casserole is hot, add half the butter andoil, and brown shanks. Sprinkle salt and pepper as they brown (this will take 10-15 minutes). Remove shanks.

Turn heat to medium and add remaining butter and oil. Cook vegetables and the thyme, stir for about 10 minutes, salt and pepper to taste. Deglaze with wine and reduce.

Lay shanks on top of vegetables and pour on remaining wine and stock. Cover and place in the oven. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, turning them several times during this process. Remove veal from vegetables and sauce. Reduce sauce. Garnish with gremolada and serve family- style or plated.

Serve over risotto or roasted red bliss potatoes.

CODE BLUE

We once catered an event where one of the guests was equipped with an oxygen tank. The entrée was filet mignon, and this particular guest had requested that his be well done. While service began, he gently called me aside to tell me his oxygen was running out and perhaps he should change his request to medium rare. He thought that he had about 30 minutes of easy breathing time left. I raced into the kitchen and announced to my husband, "Code blue, code blue, I need that filet now!" He reacted with lightning speed, tossed it on a plate and pushed it toward me.

After I raced the dinner out to him, the guest thanked me for my efforts. He appeared way too calm for what I considered a dire situation, but he assured me that he'd be able to get home before his oxygen ran out. He only lived next door and was planning to skip dessert, confessing that this was a great way to enjoy some good chow and avoid all the post-dinner chatter.

Italian-Style Whole Roasted Tenderloin

Serves 8-10

6-8 pounds whole tenderloin (ask butcher to remove silver skin)

1/8 cup fresh rosemary, chopped

1/8 cup fresh thyme, chopped

1/8 cup fresh oregano, chopped

8 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/4-1/2 pound imported prosciutto

Mix herbs and garlic together. Slowly add olive oil to make thick paste.

Salt and pepper the tenderloin. Rub the paste on the tenderloin and wrap prosciutto slices around it. Tightly wrap tenderloin in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and roast tenderloin for approximately five to10 minutes. Drop temperature to 325 and roast until internal temperature reaches 125-130 degrees (approximately 20-25 minutes). Remove from oven and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Slice and serve.

Serve with tomato Provençal and rosemary roasted potatoes.

BAD DOG!

Many of our clients had wonderful pets. One had a happy black Labrador who loved to be the center of attention. He would hang around in the kitchen while my husband cooked, hoping for a morsel to fall on the floor or be tossed in his direction.

One evening our Labrador friend was particularly ravenous. An unsuspecting guest left for a moment to use the bathroom and much to her surprise returned to find her dinner missing. She turned to her husband, who was wearing a wide grin as he pointed to our furry friend nearby. There he sat with a Cornish game hen between his paws with the fork still in it. He did not look embarrassed, but proud and content.

Luckily, we were always prepared for such situations, and my husband had two extra entrées waiting in the oven. He immediately replated her hen and all was right with the world once again.

Roasted Cornish Game Hens

Serves 4

4 Cornish game hens

3 carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 stalk lemongrass, chopped

1 bay leaf

4 tablespoons rosemary, chopped

4 tablespoons thyme, chopped

8 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rinse hens and cut in half. Mix vegetables, herbs and garlic in large mixing bowl. Salt and pepper the inside of the hens. Stuff with vegetable, herb and garlic mixture. Place on roasting rack until golden brown (approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours). Turn hens halfway through and brown on all sides.

Serve with sweet-potato pancakes and ginger and lemongrass rice.

After five years of serving and cooking for Naples' finest, we closed As You Like It. We met many wonderful people and archived all sorts of memorable experiences, but we were ready for a lifestyle change. We longed for holidays and weekends that belonged to us, and a calmer, more predictable calling. Now I'm a writer and marketing professional, and my husband, Bryan, works in the building industry, specializing in renovations-where he helps design fine kitchens rather than cook in them.