Caterers Who Stay on Top of Trends Reap the Most Rewards

Flexibility. Adaptability. Thinking on your feet. Movement. Sound like the description of a great professional basketball player? Perhaps, but these traits also make up a great caterer.

“What makes a caterer different than most operators, is the ability to handle uncontrollable circumstances,”

says Jerry Edwards, founder of Chefs Expressions, a Baltimore-based catering company. Edwards tells a handful of outlandish stories relating to such circumstances, from siphoning gas from his car for a generator that ran out of fuel to relying on candles and charcoal grills to provide light when the power went out during a function in a mansion.

“The execution of a dinner in a restaurant after you've created the menu and done the prep work, it's the same thing over and over again,” Edwards says. “In catering, no two events are ever the same. The location is different, the plates are different, the look and style are different, the co-workers are different. You never get bored.”

Wendy Pashman, owner of Entertaining Co., a Chicago-based catering company, has also had to think quickly when problems arose. Her staff have turned over milk crates and set flammable gel containers under them to use as a “range” for soups and sauces due to the absence of electricity. “Catering is very complex because we're preparing restaurant-quality food, but we're also challenged by the equipment package changing,” Pashman says. “Our chef has to be resourceful because one day they're catering in a home with a full kitchen, and the next day they're in a tent with no electricity.”

Catering is a “different beast,” in the eyes of Greg Casella, owner of Catered Too! in San Jose, Calif. Lightweight equipment, wheels and more wheels are key. “I joke that we're in the moving business, but we are,” Casella says. “Basically, we're taking a whole restaurant, packaging it up and building it somewhere else.”

As a result, he says, menus must accommodate the cooking capabilities. “I see a lot of restaurants getting into catering that like to do a lot of fried food, but it doesn't hold up well in catering,” Casella says.

On-site food preparation seems to be the growing trend among caterers these days. “It's better for customers and guests because they get a better product,” Casella says. “The food hasn't been sitting for three hours already cooked.” Plus, having performance stations with chefs or cooks preparing foods in front of the guests creates a “showy” atmosphere that they really appreciate. There's a sense that the food is fresher, and the live cooking adds great smells and visuals to the event, Casella says.

With Catered Too! based in sunny California, Casella caters a lot of outdoor events, which makes on-site cooking easier because he can use mesquite and charcoal grills. With attendance ranging from 300 to 3,000 people per event, Casella naturally prefers this type of outdoor cooking. Indoor events pose more of a challenge due to the ventilation restrictions. In addition, many venues restrict the use of butane or gas equipment indoors, especially at the San Jose Museum of Art where Casella holds the liquor license for catered events and operates a take-out café called Café Too.

For on-site preparation at inside events, Casella's staff can still cook or grill many foods outdoors due to the mild West Coast temperatures, and then bring them in for serving. Otherwise, staff rely on electric griddle tops for quesadillas, and electric or, if allowed, butane burners for preparing appetizers like potstickers and pasta dishes. For the pasta, Casella's staff prepare all the meat and pasta ahead of time and then simply warm up the dish with sauce and/or olive oil on-site to maintain freshness and better presentation. “Rather than just having the pasta sit in a chafing dish, it's a lot better product when you cook it in front of the guests,” he says.

For meats, staff undercook the individual cuts in the 2,000-square-foot prep kitchen and then transport the food in hot boxes where it continues to cook slowly to correct temperatures without the need for added heat sources. “I've put chicken for 100 people in one box and it stays hot for hours. I've had ribs in the hot boxes and the next day, the leftovers were still steaming,” he says.

The kitchen features standard equipment such as grills and other ranges, four convection ovens, plus lots of prep tables and refrigeration consisting of a huge walk-in freezer and reach-in refrigerators. Another main piece of equipment? Carts. “Everything is always moving so everything needs to be on carts as much as possible,” Casella says. As far as supplies, melamine is key for trays and other serving containers. “There are a lot of part-time employees working and you can't control everyone and how they treat the equipment so it really has to be durable.”

For the larger tent events that serve thousands of guests, Casella uses his 14-foot trailer housing a mobile kitchen with a range, refrigerator and other heavier pieces of equipment that all run on propane. In addition, a 2,000-square-foot warehouse holds dry storage as well as china, tables and chairs for up to 200 people so Casella doesn't have to rely on rental companies. “That's been a big change in our company in the past five years,” he says.

Casella makes sure he varies his menus to meet the diverse wants and needs of the California residents to which he caters. Many of his events will feature stations with foods having Asian, Italian, Indian and Mexican influences, to name a few. “A third of the population is Asian, a third is Caucasian, and a third is Hispanic, so we're trying to keep everyone happy,” Casella says, noting that the population is even more diverse in the Silicone Valley where he works.

The big catering trend Casella has noticed is the use of stations offering small plated meals. Typically, guests will casually approach the station, where the chef or cook will plate the meal or menu item for them. A cross between tapas-style bites and full-size, plated meals, guests seem to prefer stations that serve little plates of various foods like a few slices of turkey breast with a small scoop of stuffing and cranberry relish or Ahi-tuna atop a small Asian-inspired salad with a couple potstickers. Casella has also had more grab 'n go mini stations with appetizer-size seafood dishes like prawn cocktails served in martini glasses or raw oyster “shooters” in shot glasses.

“People are going out to finer restaurants to eat so they expect that level of food in the catering world,” Casella says. Staying on top of food trends is just as important as having the right equipment to set up shop from one place to the next.

Pashman also follows the small plates and ethnic trend at Entertaining Co. “We are a very niche boutique catering company with a lot of regional dishes that require different types of products,” she says. As a result, the company's executive chef, Shawn Doolin, will begin preparing a week ahead so he has time to figure out where to get the various products the menu requires.

“The trend is smaller bites, smaller plates, with loads of flavor,” Pashman says. “You're basically taking entrées and shrinking them down to the size of a bread and butter plate. So much of the focus of food now is what you put the food in.” Pashman's staff will serve shrimp cocktails in shot glasses, hot soup in saki cups and root beer floats in vodka glasses. In addition, creative tableware is a must.

Entertaining Co. caters corporate and social events for about 100 people, but will occasionally work corporate events for 500, 1,000 and even 3,500 people. For the smaller gatherings, Pashman expects more rudimentary conditions and must remain adaptable, especially at people's homes. “Sometimes, there will be electricity and water and that's exciting to us,” Pashman says with a laugh. When these resources are not available, Pashman's crew will truck in bottles of water and cans of flammable gel.

One time, building managers shut off the electricity in the commercial kitchen where they were supposed to work out of, so Doolin and staff turned medal milk crates upside down, put flammable gel underneath and used the makeshift ranges to heat huge pots of soup. “There's always that kind of excitement in catering,” Pashman says.

Often, Pashman's crew will set up in the garage outside the house where their event takes place so they don't damage the pristine kitchens. “Behind the scenes we're all about a commercial setup, but in front of the guests at the event our goal is to make us appear as non-commercial and residential as possible,” Pashman says.

Doolin's equipment of choice for these situations? The steel hot box, or “cave,” that requires merely a single flammable gel canister for heat. He and staff use the cave for anything from smoking meats like tenderloin to slow-cooking fish to proofing bread. Doolin says he prefers the cave because its cavity can heat up to 300°F., whereas many electric hotboxes only reach about 160°F. In addition, it allows for flexibility and control.

The cave can also hold two different types of foods and cook them at different temperatures. For example, staff can place a rack of meat that's been pre-seared to lock in juices on the bottom of the cave, leaving the flammable gel container closer to the food product to create hotter temperatures. At the same time, at the top of the cave staff can place a rack of fish to cook slowly due to the fact that less heat is present. This keeps the fish from overcooking. Doolin's staff also cook sauces in the caves. They do so by placing sauce pots in pans of water, which warms the liquids using indirect heat. And adding a steam pan with water allows the cave to double as a steamer. Staff have made smoked chicken with a pumpkin-goat cheese soufflé using the cave.

“It's a whole art form,” Doolin says. “My background is in fine dining, but I would rather have some of the cooks working the caves because they do so all the time.”

The other advantage of the cave is its durability and mobility. “They get banged around, wheeled around, are a third of the cost of electric ones, and you don't have to worry about repairing them all the time,” Doolin says.

Catering kitchens are similar to those found in restaurants. One of the main differences, though, is the fact that catering kitchens tend to have larger walk-in coolers and freezers as well as more prep tables and carts, Pashman says.

Doolin says his “minimalist” kitchen consists mainly of a few large mixers, three convection ovens, burners, stoves and other standard equipment that helps him and staff prepare every single item on the catering menus from scratch, including bread and appetizers. He once had deck ovens, but says he removed them because they were massive in size and cooked inconsistently. With Entertaining Co.'s growing success, however, Doolin plans to expand the kitchen and add equipment like a tilting skillet. Pots and pans used by caterers tend to be larger than those found in a typical restaurant's collection, Doolin says.

The warehouse was a saving grace for the Entertaining Co. because it allowed Doolin to move the warewashing area in that space as well as loads of dry storage and tableware. Inside the main building, a tasting room cloaked in colorful velvet drapes flanked by a couch and dining table make for a comfortable environment.

Transporting foods slightly undercooked and finishing them on-site is key to most caterers these days. “Eleven years ago, most people thought of food from catering as dry chicken, and that's because they used to transport food fully cooked,” Doolin says.

Edwards follows the same line of reasoning at Chefs Expressions. “We won't send anything completely finished,” he says. “For example, if we are serving roast beef we would marinate it ahead of time but cook it on-site. Everything is quality-oriented, especially since more people are watching the Food Network and the Travel Channel and dining out more.”

In the 5,000-square-foot kitchen, staff prepare everything from scratch. Nearby, a 5,000-square-foot warehouse holds dry storage items and dishware. Key pieces of equipment include large, durable ovens, and a gas grill that can be retrofitted with accessories to smoke foods using wood and charcoal. Staff prepare foods such as soups and sauces in bulk and package the finished product in smaller containers for easy handling on-site. After prepping, all the food for each party chills in one of the eight reach-in refrigerators specifically designated by party or event. In all, the packing process takes one-to-two hours, Edwards says.

On-site, Edwards and staff rely on portable ovens and stoves, most of which are electric. Propane burners, if allowed, or candy stoves heat up soup and sauces at the site. Or, they will grill foods outside on charcoal grills and bring them inside for serving at indoor events. Thermal food storage containers hold meats that have been pre-seared or lightly grilled. “They're also great for lamb and veal osso bucco because the roasted meat and flavors meld together.”

In the winter, Edwards uses ice packs to keep food cool, but in the summer, will use refrigerated trucks. This is especially important for maintaining foods at safe temperatures.

“Food safety is very important to us,” Edwards says. “Every chef has a thermometer at all times.” To chill foods after they've been cooked, Edwards' staff will submerge ice rods in the center of a pot of sauce or soup to cool it properly from the inside out and bring it down to the correct temperature before it goes into the walk-in cooler.

Most of Edwards' events are traditional sit-down dinners with plated meals vs. buffet-style because, he says, “You can get much more creative with the food.” With a buffet, customers often have just one or two plates and put all different kinds of food on it, but with plated meals, the chefs have the control to present the food beautifully in the form of smaller courses like a lemongrass pot au crème and baby greens with caviar and lavash, followed by a bacon and leek-crusted Australian Barramundi with a fennel salad, and then a couple small plates of veal with cranberry Neufchatel stuffing and porcini-dusted wild boar with a roasted beet sauce. Many of Edwards' menus take this French- or European-style of dining with multiple, smaller courses and upscale foods.

In catering, Edwards says, “There is a little more passion for adventure, more thinking on your feet. It's never mundane.” Evolving culinary trends, new developments in equipment technology and the unknown that comes with working certain venues continue to help catering professionals feed their guests while satisfying their own appetite for adventure.