Too crazy to suggest this falls in the same category as "never borrow money from friends?"

"Never let a friend deep fry in your stunning GW-beloved kitchen"

Sounds anxiety inducing. And you'll look silly running around cleaning up after him if he is a messy cook (I am a messy cook, so I say this with compassion :) ).

Quick!

Get an outdoor fryer! No hot oil in that sweet kitchen of yours.

Then enjoy the gumbo. YUM.

Never made or ate gumbo, so don't know what's involved, but could you have him do the messy stuff outside on a bbq/grill. Maybe use an overly sensitive smoke detector as the excuse. Or rent a deep fryer if you don't have one and use it outside?

My 'new' kitchen is 6 or 7 years old now, but I still remember that first tiny chip in my stone counters and freaking out. Now it wouldn't be a problem, so I can understand both your concern over your new kitchen and your guests lack of thought about actually cooking in a (new) kitchen.

Sounds like a fun event. Hope you can enjoy it and your new kitchen.

LOL!

Alcohol. Lots of it. Get those mimosas going early Sunday morning. And I mean only for you and your non-cooking guests. On NO ACCOUNT do you give one to the cook until after all the deep frying is done and that gumbo's on the table. :-)

Seriously, have fun this weekend. Except for the deep-frying-near-the-brand-new-gorgeous-granite thing, it sounds like you'll have a blast.

Hey, slow down.
Why don't you ask him?

I've never heard of deep frying chicken for gumbo, although anything's possible.
If he is, suggest you don't want to fry in your new kitchen,
("I'm sure you can understand, Bob! A new kitchen!") and ask how the chickens could be baked ahead of time.

Baked chickens can be beautifully moist.
There's also rotisseried outside.
No reason to invest in 1) oil, 2) an outside fryer, 3) the anxiety you're giving yourself!

Slow down....
(but don't fry. It'll be there for months, as you probably well know!!!)

pick up already cooked chickens at Costco or somewhere.

ask why so much oil... then reply 'oh dear, no. we don't eat deep fried foods' - if you've eaten it in the past around these friends, you've now gone on a healthy new way of eating...

or tell them you've decided to just pick up some take out or deli type food - so that you can all relax and enjoy each other's company. Don't wanna waste such precious time cooking and then cleaning up!

I'm guessing he's planning on frying something but it's not the jumbo. Perhaps it's okra or something he plans on serving in or with the jumbo. Get an extension cord if you don't have a convenient outlet and have him fry outside.

Hey - kitchen's are for cooking not looking! Let your friend do his thing and enjoy the experience. Don't follow him around with a rag. Oil can be wiped up later. Unlikely he'll chip your counter. Relax and enjoy!

What to do?? Invite a large group of GW friends to monitor him, of course! Then you can relax and enjoy while we watch over your kitchen. All we ask is to be fed for our efforts. Darn...gumbo, bananas foster, and mimosas?!? OK, we'll suffer through the agony of eating it. ;)

The only way we do a 3 chicken sized pot of gumbo around here is outdoors with an institutional sized pot and a large single propane burner---and lots of alcohol, both for the cook and the spectators. It's the only way it gets done in de bayou too. You do use some oil to make roux, but not two large container's worth unless you are making a 50 gallon pot of it---and that would be more than 3 chickens worth. Something else is on the agenda if that much oil is being called for.

Take a look at your local box store for a high BTU single propane burner--sometimes marketed as "turkey fryers". They are great for outdoor cookouts and are exactly perfect for the job your friend needs to do. The dessert can be made in the kitchen, but the gumbo needs to be made outside. Buy two while you are at it and a couple of pounds of smaller shrimp for snacking on while the gumbo is cooking. They're "cajun popcorn". You can use the burners to fry your turkey this coming Easter and it will be the best turkey you've ever had!

BTW, it strikes me as a bit rude for a guest to give a host a shopping list for them to be able to supply a dish for a gathering. Where I'm from, potluck means the guest supplies the dish, not just the labor to create it. I've been to long distance potlucks where I had to make do with a crockpot in a hotel room to be able to supply a dish, but I managed to do so rather than order up a bunch of groceries to be bought by others and then commandeer my host's kitchen.

the only thing you would need oil for is to make a roux and if he is making that much roux, you are going to have a ton of gumbo!!!!
ask him.
i would personally relax and be thrilled someone is going to all the trouble to make gumbo for me. (it is alot of work to get it just right).

I noticed that you had asked for oil and was wondering if you were planning on deep frying? If so is there another way we could do the chicken? We never deep fry. What other way can we do it so I can get whatever you need! Looking so forward to seeing everyone and can't wait to enjoy that amazing gumbo!!! xoxo, SixtyOhno

Ask him - if it was me coming, I'd be bringing my big outdoor fryer/cooker with me. I wouldn't expect someone else to own one, or even a pot I would deem suitable to deep fry in.

Great ideas. #2 for your peace of mind is to borrow an outside stove for whatever he intends to use that oil for. Since gumbo's a soup or stew, it's almost certainly not that. Have it all set up and ready for the chef du jour. A good part of his cooking time is going to be spent inside, though, standing in front of your gorgeous new stove--in a very civilized manner--slowly developing a roux in a frying pan (unless he does that ahead of time).

#1: Enjoy. :)

Before you buy any additional equipment, ask him what he needs. I think everyone on this thread is way overreacting to a little oil. You do have good ventilation over your range, right?

I agree with weissman, the more the merrier.
Now if your friend is a known drunken idiot who burns things down when he cooks that's another matter.
Oh and mimosas are a terrific idea! Really just talk to your friend, get the facts, then figure out a plan that you'll both be happy with.

I make Gumbo regularly and there is no deep fying involved! Maybe you misunderstood how much oil he wants. I've never heard of putting fried chicken in a gumbo......I'd just call him and ask! Enjoy, Gumbo's the bomb!

I might be a little more concerned about the Bananas Foster! Doesn't brandy get put in there and set aflame?

I'm with drbeanie! :) Sounds like you've got friends chomping at the bit to try out your new kitchen! Hopefully that means they will go to great lengths to take care of it too.

Sounds like a fun (but slightly nerve-wracking) weekend is in store. I hope you can relax enough to enjoy it!

Why all the long, drawn out explanations?

"No frying in my new kitchen."

Heavens to Betsy! I'm glad I have a good vent hood and a kitchen I can cook in. Wasn't that the point, after all? Well, it was for me. I don't usually fry, but I sure can -- cooktop, vent adjoining marble and all. If the guy knows what he's doing, let him at it and enjoy it.

You did put in a vent, didn't you?

Perhaps he is just trying to get a reaction out of you! He surely knows that you don't deep fry in others brand new kitchens..

My son and his girlfriend came home for the weekend and just had to cook in my new kitchen. Fried potatoes, seared steak that they finished off in the oven.

I let them and just went outside and told them to tell me when it was done. I could not watch without making comments. lol

I carefully and thoroughly cleaned up after them while they relaxed on the patio.

Kitchen is now used ;(

OMG- I'm finding this hysterical! Not because I think it's ridiculous- (of course you should COOK in a kitchen!) but because I know I would be the SAME way. I can't believe there are others out there like me! lol
This forum is too much!

AND- if another friend calls and asks if she can dye Easter eggs on your brand new white marble counter, you'll KNOW this is a hoax!

I cook in my kitchen now, and I'll cook when it's finally fixed.

That doesn't mean I'll let somebody else burn it down after three months in a raging grease fire.

Just: No.

DH loves to make chicken wings which are yummy...BUT...I make him do all deep-frying in the garage. And I make sure my car is outside first. Even in the garage, it takes days to get rid of deep fried chicken smell.

I agree with the others - ask him if he intends to deep fry and if so, tell him you'd rather not have that done in your new kitchen for now. If he's a friend he shouldn't get upset.

I would ask him what he intends to do with 2 large containers of oil and then I would tell him you don't fry in your new kitchen but you will be glad to rent an outdoor fryer if he needs to fry.

Alton Brown has a terrific no-fry Buffalo wings recipe.

Thank you all for your fabulous responses. Our visitors are a young couple, musicians from NYC who are playing a concert upstate and coming to us on the way home for stay over, to relax and unwind and oh my, cook gumbo for our friends who have been interested in their careers. They don't know I have a new kitchen. In the old one I wouldn't have cared if they deep fried 10 chickens.
We have a grill outside and if indeed, his gumbo needs frying, it will be outside. I did look on the net for recipes and I didn't find anything with frying. So we will see. The wine is in the fridge.
The reason he gave me shopping list is that they are on the road.
Here's a video of him performing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R8FLHFb420

Buy one very small container of oil and when he ask "is that all of the oil?", reply with "oh, I must have misunderstood" then ask if he wants you to set up the deep fryer outdoors while he runs to the store.
My kitchen is no where near as beautiful as yours however there are only 3 individuals (mom, husband and daughter) other than me that are allowed to cook in it. I know I'm anal but after all, my kitchen my rules.

My MIL in NOLA always fried her chicken first till done and then pulled the meat off of the bone. It was incredible gumbo. She followed the recipe that Frank Davis and Mary Clare had in the Times Picayune . No one cooks better than Frank. That said it doesn't take 2 containers of oil to do 3 chickens but you have to have enough to get a good "fry" on the floured /seasoned chicken. I have eaten a lot of gumbo in NOLA...DH and I grew up there, and it was all made differently and all good.

Hold on to your napkins and be prepared for a special meal.

That is one amazing cello !! c

So did you ask him?

I love gumbo, but there's no frying involved.

If your young friend can make gumbo anywhere near as well as he plays cello . . .

He is so graceful, and the music so lovely, delicate, sincere. I can't imagine him creating a greasy mess! ;)

I haven't had good gumbo in years (NOLA is my birthplace). ENJOY!!

Um, there is no way in he11 there would be any deep frying going on in my new kitchen!! This ain't McDonalds! :) I have a fab vent, but good grief...I would still feel like everything would be coated in it! Gross! Fried food makes my stomach hurt. I suppose this makes me the owner of a kitchen for lookin', not cookin'! And I am ok with that!

sixtyohno, how did the invasion turn out? Was there really deep frying involved with gumbo??

Enquiring minds want to know! lol

cheers

After all my worrying and all the great GW suggestions, the day actually went very well. My kitchen with stood a 6 hour cooking marathon and we had an extraordinary dinner. I've attached Paul Prudomme's recipe. My friend used a variation of it. My friend brought his own iron skillet. The 3 chickens were cut up and the backs added to celery, onions etc to make stock. The chicken parts were seasoned and breaded and fried in a lot of oil and the drippings used to make a roux. We used almost a 32 ounce bottle of oil, plus chicken fat and pork sausage, thrown right into the gumbo. (usually I nuke sausage and paper towel it to get rid of some of the fat.)
The meal was excellent. The kitchen stayed perfect. Here's the recipe. Thanks for all your help and for following up.
Laura
http://www.chefpaul.com/site.php?pageID=300&view=122

What great news! Good for you! And thanks for the recipe!

Thanks for the update! I'm glad everything went well and there were no casualties --kitchen or human lol.

cheers

Good Food. Good Time and Good Friends. That's what a kitchen should be used for. Glad it all went well.

I'm glad everything went well and there were no casualties --kitchen or human

Well, there was those 3 chickens. They did not fare so well.

My suggestion is be honest, say I'm OCD about my new kitchen. Then purchase the chickens and the meal as it was suggested and explain next time we come to you I will have your famous gumbo!

Glad to hear it turned out well. Did he do the frying outside?

The frying was done inside. It was just chicken parts, so it didn't involve too much. We used a spatter thing over the frying pan and the vent fan was on "4".
The gumbo was delicious, but a lot of work and definitely not too good for one's arteries. We are going to try and adept it to baked boned chicken breasts, chicken sausage and just a little frying. The flavor was terrific.