And it works. Stewart Glass, president of Designed Cuisine, a division of Catering by Michaels in Chicago, says, “You can get the most bang for your buck with butler-passed hors d’oeuvres. It lets you control how much food comes out to the party and keeps people from eating too fast. Also, with buffets, you have to fill a certain amount of table space. On a buffet, often you have to spend a minimum of $20 to $30 per person. With butlered hors d’oeuvres, you might be able to keep the cost to $10 or $15 per person.”
Apple’s Catering of the Mintahoe Hospitality Group in St. Paul, MN, uses the same concept. They’ve created a Bloody Mary shrimp shooter — two tail-on shrimp and a grilled celery stick in a spiced cocktail sauce served in a shot glass. The shooters are passed on custom designed acrylic trays. According to vice president of sales Jolene Ihle, “It’s a really good way to control the shrimp consumption, and it’s more interesting than putting out trays of chilled shrimp.”
Event people are also keeping costs down by combining passed hors d’oeuvres and buffets. Because passed hors d’oeuvres allow planners to control the amount of food attendees consume, they can add a few pricey items to the hors d’oeuvres menu and still control costs by using less expensive foods on the buffet.
Eric Greenstein of Contemporary Catering and Event Planning Services in Los Angeles uses this technique to sneak higher-end foods into tight event budgets. “Our most popular appetizers — mini potato latkes topped with sour cream or crème fraiche and a little caviar — we do as a butlered service. We put more substantial foods on the buffet and pass the more expensive items to keep the cost per person down.”
And here’s a really stealthy idea: Event planners are changing event times to save cash on food. Rather than timing an event for the dinner hour when people expect a full meal, they plan it later in the evening when a limited menu, such as hors d’oeuvres or dessert, would be more appropriate.
Shawna Suckow, president of COMPASS Events in Minneapolis, recently developed an event for Grubb & Ellis Inc. in Palm Springs using a “Dessert in the Desert” theme. It was a standing function with a lighter bar and dessert bars of various types – cheesecakes with toppings, petit fours, etc. Suckow asserts “We saved 30 to 40 percent over what it would have cost to do an hors d’oeuvres reception.” But the later time of the event, from 8 pm to 10 pm, and the creative use of the location as part of the theme, assured attendees would see the concept not as a cost-cutting measure but as a themed event.
Interactive Food: The Value of Experience
It’s one thing to cut costs. It’s another thing to do it while maintaining a perception of value. Yet, that’s the game today according to Jon Van Nevel, associate director of conference planning at the Westin-Innisbrook Golf Resort in Tampa Bay. “Right now,” he says, “people are really looking for value versus price.”
Part of providing that value is creating an experience for event attendees. James Gilmore, co-author of “The Experience Economy,” explains: “Creating an experience is about creating a memory — not just serving food and beverage. An experience is designed to create a specific set of impressions and sensations.”
Event planners are making an impression on their guests by getting people to interact with their food — and through the food, each other. Do-it-yourself food stations, where attendees “build” their meals from a selection of ingredients, and chef performance stations, where catering staff prepare the food on the spot for attendees, are popular ways to create interaction and make an event experience memorable.
According to Ihle, “Chef performance stations are a great way to achieve interaction — people gather around the chef to watch and ask questions. Our Santa Fe guacamole station is very interactive. It’s a great icebreaker at the beginning of a cocktail party or reception. The chef at the station hand-blends avocado with cilantro, a variety of peppers, garlic, and lime.”
One of the hottest trends in food stations is the mashed potato martini bar. According to Bill Hansen, of Leading Caterers of America and Bill’s Catering of Coconut Grove, a typical mashed potato martini bar includes the following ingredients: mashed potatoes, sour cream, bacon bits, chopped chives, and shredded cheddar cheese — all served up in a classic martini glass. Some caterers vary the ingredients — replacing the sour cream with crème fraiche or replacing the bacon bits with Canadian bacon. Hansen suggests the added touch of posting a catering staff member at the end of the potato bar with a kitchen torch, so he can provide a blast of heat to melt the cheese atop each attendee’s mashed martini. Now there’s a memorable experience.
Caterers across the country have found unique ways to vary the martini bar concept. Designed Cuisine does a salad martini bar. Each attendee fills his martini glass with a variety of salad toppings — baby corn, hearts of palm, shredded cheese, mushrooms, and other toppings. When the attendee has selected his toppings, he hands his martini glass to a catering staff member at the end of the bar. He pours the contents of the glass into an oversized martini shaker along with mixed salad greens and the attendee’s choice of salad dressing — balsamic, ranch, vinaigrette, etc. He then shakes vigorously, and pours the whole melange back into the martini glass and hands it to the attendee along with a fork.
The presentation at such stations seems elaborate, but the cost is limited. The average cost for a mashed potato martini bar ranges between $4 and $6 per person, depending on toppings. According to Sara Stark, president of The Venue in St. Paul, “people are doing a combination of more traditional things, such as food stations with beef or chicken and salads, and adding one or two of these performance stations. It makes things more interesting and keeps things affordable.”
Global Grub: More Spice, Lower Price
Because today’s corporate clients are well-traveled, food at corporate events is showing a definite international influence. Fortunately, this trend lends itself to the cost control climate.
According to Annemarie Minke of Annemarie’s Feast Catering in New York, “Moroccan is big right now. And right now budget is an issue. This is why we use Moroccan. It’s very simple and inexpensive, but it still looks elaborate. For example, I might serve a Moroccan entrée like a beef bisteeya. It’s ground beef with cinnamon and almonds baked in a phyllo dough crust. It’s friendly, it’s filling, and it’s tasty — it’s like a big pie.” Moroccan menu items aren’t limited to bisteeya. Skewered lamb, beef, and chicken, couscous with vegetables, and tangine, a Moroccan stew with meat or poultry simmered with veggies and a variety of spices, are also showing up on corporate event menus.
Other Mediterranean and even Middle Eastern flavors are also gaining popularity. Glass explains “Hummus has gotten very popular, as well as kabobs. You can get away with using them in hors d’oeuvres, even at corporate events where the menus are still pretty standard — carving stations with meat, mashed potatoes, and chopped salads.” Tabbouleh, a mixture of bulghur wheat and chopped onions, tomatoes, herbs, and olive oil, stuffed grape leaves called dolmeh, and falafel, fried patties of ground, spiced chickpeas, are also making the menu.
Other international foods making a big hit with corporate clients are South-east Asian foods. Foods like vegetarian Asian spring rolls, seared tuna with wasabi and ginger, and chicken sate with Indonesian peanut sauce are now common menu options.
Latin foods are also being embraced. Tapas in particular, a Spanish style of serving food in small portions, is popular. Minke agrees: “We do tapas style foods — our spanish potato omelette is quite popular—it’s tasty, filling, and cost-effective. I serve it with grilled green asparagus, olive tapenade, grilled squid, and grilled chicken strips with Romesco sauce. Marinated mushrooms also. You can be very vegetarian with tapas food—which keeps costs down.”
Comfort Food Still Comforting
For every person who says the comfort food trend is over, you’ll find a person who says it’s not. Despite the debate, it’s clear that the components of comfort food are still very much en vogue. Simple, tasty meals using fewer ingredients can be found on catering menus nationwide. And, typically speaking, comfort foods contain less expensive ingredients, making them more affordable than elaborate fare.
Minke agrees: “The comfort food trend is not over. You can make a simple meal excellently — it looks beautiful and it tastes gorgeous. My comfort foods are coq au vin, beef bourguignon, maybe an apple streudel for dessert — uncomplicated, hearty meals.”
As far as corporate events are concerned, sticking to the basics has always been popular. Hansen explains, “in terms of what you serve for entrees at these types of events, you are pretty much sticking to what people have enjoyed for years and years, whether it is beef tenderloin, fillet of salmon, or mashed potatoes.
I like to incorporate the more trendy things — the international flavors for example — into hors d’oeuvres because everyone may not like those.” Greenstein agrees: “They’re sticking to the basics — chicken, beef, potatoes.”
Today’s food trends may be about balancing cost control with creativity, but you need to maintain perspective. Suckow recently had a corporate client tell her “all we really need for our reception is Pepperidge Farm Gold Fish and beer.” That might be pushing your corporate image a bit too far.  |
s you plan your next event, you should know that today’s food trends are all about cost control. Event producers are tightening belts around budgets and putting the emphasis on presentation and good old-fashioned taste. This translates into swanky, butler-passed hors d’oeuvres, interactive food, international flavors, and stick-to-your-ribs comfort food.
