One of the things we pride ourselves on is that although we can certainly come up with a menu for your event, we work with every client to come up with something that fits their event, whether it’s a South American-influenced tapas-style menu, or an All American menu menu with sliders and mac n cheese.
As you put together your event and think about the food you want to serve your guests, whether it’s for a wedding or just a private party, here are a few things to think about:
1. How the meal is served: will food be served reception-style, buffet, traditional plated, or family-style? This has a lot of impact on how your event feels. There seems to be a lot of interest in family-style meals (we love these), but keep in mind that family-style meals typically mean more serving plates (more rentals = higher cost) and typically larger tables. Buffets can actually be more expensive due to the quantity of food. And as you’ve probably experienced, traditional plated meals can be more formal.
2. What season is your event in? We always try to use seasonally-appropriate ingredients, not only because it is better all around (cheaper for you, better for the environment, etc), but seasonally-appropriate foods also help to give an event a certain oomph. Just think: what would summer be without tomatoes?
3. What’s your budget? The biggest factor in this is the number of guests. After you get a sense of headcount, figure out how much you can realistically spend per person and then what parts of the menu are most important to you — a recreation of your mother’s famous lasagna, or those blinis.
4. What’s your venue like? Some venues have kitchens, while at others have little to no kitchen facilities. Some foods are best when served right after cooking. While we’ll ultimately be guiding you once we have more information from your venue, it’s always good for you to know what your venue can handle.
To get started planning your event’s menu, feel free to contact us.