Catering is a business where the culinary arts are carefully orchestrated from kitchen to your special event. Not an easy task considering the many obstacles to overcome.
First there is the issue of creating menu's which stand apart from local restaurants, yet offer the same variety and quality. Then we must consider that we have to create a menu which will appeal to all guests. Can you imagine having one to three entrees in a restaurant full of 150 guests expecting that all guests will be completely satisfied with one of three choices? Our approach is simple, satisfy the host and don't worry about the rest. However, any chef will tell you that a smile on every guest is the ultimate reward for the hard work put into this business.
Next, there is individualized shopping and ordering of food for your event. Most caterers do not own their own kitchen where items on your daily menu can be prepared in larger amounts and sent off to your event. We use our distributors, local restaurant clubs and grocery stores to shop for food only days before your event. Then we have to carefully consider prepping your food while minding the window of freshness each product will allow us in order to provide a great meal. Personally, I try to buy all my produce the day before the event and shop local farmers markets first because I like to go local as often as possible.
Next, you have the hard learned and hard earned issue of meal freshness. We have a professional kitchen that we work out of, but sometimes that can be up to 50 miles away from our event. How do you get that chicken to be so tender without overcooking it and still achieve food safety measures? A task that any chef will tell you is simply complicated, and those who don't....may opt to overcook just to save the hassle. It would be nice if every event venue had a commercial kitchen but were only dreaming for now.
Regardless of your approach, catering for a party can be difficult but there are many resources online for recipes and creative ideas to wow your guests. Or, you can call a professional and allow them to worry about it for you.
Thanks for listening to the first real ramble of Chef Chris
Yours Truly,
Chef Chris
Arizona Event Catering
Portable Pubs, LLC
www.arizonaeventcatering.com
