Why I Cater

My career path started out on a slightly different track.  Originally, I wanted to be a physical therapist.  Sometime during my junior year of high school that all changed.  I decided I wanted to be in restaurants.  My focus was to be a front of the house manager and eventually open my own restaurant.  With that goal in front of me, I went to culinary school in Pittsburgh.  Why culinary school if I had no true desire to be in the kitchen?  There were a couple of reasons.  The main being I wanted an education to fast track my path to upper restaurant management.  I looked into schools and found Pennsylvania Culinary had a restaurant management program.  The second reason I didn’t realize until looking at schools.  Part of the program to have the management majors start in the culinary program.  For the first 8 months of the program, I was in the kitchens and classrooms with those that would go on to be chefs.  I didn’t realize how important and valuable this part of my education was until later down the road.  I learned basic knife skills (I didn’t lose any fingers either), cooking techniques and strangely enough, I make great Kool-Aid.  We made our own beverages in the kitchen each day.  Somehow we got hooked on Kool-Aid.  Everyone had a chance to make it.  You would be amazed how many talented chefs cannot make Kool-Aid.  I had a skill for it so I was the designated beverage girl for about 6 months.

Anyway – that time in Pittsburgh taught me about foods I had never seen before.  I have my favorites as well as some that I hope to never see again – MONKFISH.  I learned to season using something other than salt and pepper.  After the culinary portion was complete, the groups of students separated in to advance culinary kitchens and restaurant management.  No more chef coats and comfy pants.  Now it was button downs, dress pants and silly bow ties.  We opened and ran the student restaurant, learned table-side Caesar Salad and Bananas Foster, overall operations of a 60 seat limited menu restaurant.  It was educational to say the least.

Then came extern season.  Every student was required to find an externship to graduate.  I was lucky at the beginning as I was set for St. John and a resort externship.  Then Hurricane Melissa decided that the resort needed a makeover.  The search was on again.  I was lucky a second time and headed to the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead, Atlanta. A program was designed for me that moved me through the Food & Beverage Department – Stewarding, Room Service, Café and Banquets.  I also assisted in Restaurant Reservations and Honor Bar.  During my time in each department, I was exposed to even more.  Through Stewarding and cleaning bake shop, I learned about making pastries and chocolate sculpture.  I am not a baker or sculptor, but I have enormous respect for those who do.  I learned about mass plating for banquets while maintaining the presentation standard.  I even challenged a chef regarding poached eggs.  I won that in the end. In the end, I was hired on to be the Honor Bar manager.  I was definitely the youngest supervisor.  I also helped out in the other departments.  I learned as much as I could.   It wasn’t a glamorous high paying job, but it is still nice to say I worked for the Ritz Carlton.  I left there to go to Wyndham hotels for the Olympics.  I was hired as a front desk agent, but true to form, I worked in all the Food & Beverage departments.  It is nice to be versatile and hungry to learn.

I won’t bore you with my entire resume.  Suffice to say, I have worked in many establishments over the years.  I got out of restaurants because the love I had for it had been taken away from me years before.  Someone in my past made me feel like I had no business being in a restaurant, had no talent for it and should rethink my career choice.  It was not an employer, but someone whose opinion I valued at the time.  That person is no longer in my life and has not been for a long time.  When I did finally leave restaurants, I took an office position. It enabled me to learn other careers and develop a new passion - coordinate events.  I was planning and coordinating events for a large office building.  I was out of the restaurant but still using my managerial abilities in other ways.  I found I was pretty good with planning and coordinating events.  I liked the problem solving and organization of events.  The unpredictability makes me crazy, but it has taught me to plan for anything. 

I started my own event planning business in 2013.  Even now, I still plan and coordinate events.  During the first year, I moved into small event catering.  Not my intention, but things happen.  When we opened our deli in 2014, it became clear that this is where I was heading.  People started off asking for deli trays.  Now I will make them, but I do not recommend them.  Ask me sometime to explain that.  As people started asking for recommendations or talking about their parties, I started getting more and more comfortable in the kitchen.  I expanded our offerings and starting delivering.  That deli has been sold.  While I have no desire to open another restaurant or compete in cooking contests, I am content back in the kitchen.  Making good food the right way.  I don’t even prep things more than one day in advance unless called for.  I believe everything should be cooked as close to service as possible and not reheated.  I like to use local products/vendors whenever possible.  I cannot seem to get locally grown pineapples in Ohio.  So disappointing.  I take normal recipes and make them my own.  I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest.  I still hate Monkfish. 

I cater because I love to be part of my client’s big day without being in the spotlight.  One of my customers said it best – Food is love!  I show people how much I care by the dishes I make/create.  From the silly deli sliders to the roast beef with Au jus.  I like to look at these orders as feeding my friends and their families not just as clients. 

I cater because I get to be in the kitchen playing mad scientist and then I get to see how it plays out with the client’s event.  When you add something to the menu and then get to see their reaction to the dish, which is an amazing feeling.  Even the bad dishes.  I look at every experience as a learning experience.  I either learned what to do or what not to do.  If you have been one of the lucky/unlucky taste testers of mine through the years, I thank you.  Your feedback has made me a better caterer. 

I cater because of the people who follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.   Those people who are looking for something less commercial and a little different.  While I can make the traditional catered fare, why should I?  I can have fun with my clients and come up with creative menus that people will talk about.

Keep following the blog as new things are coming.  I am keeping all of you one your toes like my clients do to me.

Thank you for reading our blog.  I hope you enjoy it.