Serving temperature

harr

Hi
So was out for dinner last night and ordered duck liver pate When it arrived it was stone cold ..it nearly had ice crystals in it.
Any other time I have had pate it was served cool or nearer room temp and if I have at home I serve it after about 5 minutes out of the fridge.
I returned it and got a different starter. The waitress returned and said the the chef apologized but that was the proper serving temp for pate.
It wasn’t creamy or anything and was all bitty when trying to spread on the bread..
It was in a fairly good restaurant who’s food is normally a high standard.
So anyway ,how should it be served ?or was I wrong...
I am hoping to make my own for Christmas as we will have people over and don’t want to make a balls of it.

drunkmonkey

I would have assumed room temperature, should be softish and easy to spread like butter but thicker. Can't ever remember getting an ice cold one.

dudara

A grainy texture is not a sign in liver pâté. Close to room temperature would seem like a good temp to me, you’d want to be able to spread it without bother.

the beer revolu

This could be down to food handling regulations.
I'd imagine that the chef would like to serve it at ambient temperature but I suspect the regs might insist that it's served straight from the fridge.

drunkmonkey

In the name of science I ordered one in Paris Texas earlier with my pint. Chilled but not frozen and I left a little bit to get to room temperature, nicer slightly chilled. It wasn't as cold as the print.

harr

Thanks for the replies, what I got was way to cold anyway...well for my liking.
I normally let it sit out of fridge for a few minutes before serving.
Even the consistency was poor and I have had perfectly from same restaurant before. A nice thick consistency..it wasn’t far off the consistency of a thick sorbet

drunkmonkey

Just had a creme brulee, more like frozen custard, top not carmalised, was very cold, had almond biscuits in it, shook the table I was trying to break the biscuits so hard, gave up and eat them whole. Didn't mention it, the woman in the table beside us gave out there wasn't enough leaves in her salmon salad, no way I was going to get myself placed in the nut job box with her.