Food and Beverage

July 20, 2016

At the Engage! wedding summit held in Colorado in 2014, the event's dessert party offered an easy-to-eat lollipop version of campfire s'mores. (The event's rustic location inspired other various camp-inspired details.)

Photo: Tammy Swales/Engage!

At the Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscars benefit bash earlier this year, the after-party included espresso milkshakes topped with mini doughnuts on straws.

Photo: Alesandra Dubin

Sterling Engagements hosted a party in Los Angeles last year to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The array of catering options there included a sophisticated milk-and-cookies dessert bar including various flavors of milk.

Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash

Build-Your-Own Éclairs

Starwood’s Le Méridien hotel brand has made the éclair its dessert of choice, developing a signature éclair for each destination in partnership with James Beard award-winning pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini. While the treats are served on the hotel’s restaurant menus as well as offered as meeting breaks, they can also be incorporated into teambuilding activities. Several properties, from Santa Monica (pictured) to Dallas to Philadelphia have led groups in a build-your-own éclair station.

Photo: Ben Gibbs

Doughnut and Pie Making

Pastry chef Danny Angelopolus leads cooking classes for groups gathered at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he creates treats such as whoopie pies (pictured) and pear tarts. In two recent teambuilding classes, groups focused on making their own doughnuts and pie.

Photo: Courtesy of the Charles Hotel

Chocolate-Making Classes

Groups can take part in activities such as dipping their own chocolate truffles to creating chocolate bars topped with dried fruit, nuts, and other toppings at the New York’s Voilà Chocolat. The Upper West Side venue offers chocolate-making classes under the direction of owner Peter Moustakerski along with former Jacques Torres chocolatier Christophe Toury and chocolate scientist Dennis Teets. Attendees have their own workstations and can choose milk, white, or dark chocolate for their creations.

Photo: Courtesy of Voilà Chocolat

Competitive Creations

Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa offers several sweet options for teambuilding events, many of which have competitive elements. In a cookie-decorating competition, a pastry chef demonstrates how to decorate a cookie with royal icing. Each team must then try to recreate the cookie, with the most accurate rendition named the winner. In another competition-style event, teams learns how to make ice cream from a pastry chef. They create their own flavor and race to hand-churn the ice cream, with each member taking a turn. Everyone can taste the results at an ice cream sundae station.

Photo: Courtesy of Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa

S'more Bonfires

A seasonal teambuilding option at the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa involves gathering outdoors to make the classic childhood dessert s’mores. Instead of a campfire, however, the hotel will set up a bonfire on the beach with comfortable chairs and tiki-style torches. The option is available November 1 through February. Another desserts activity that plays off of nostalgia serves up edible board games such as tic-tac-toe and checkers that guests can play—and then eat.

Photo: Courtesy of Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa

Tasting Tours

For groups that want an off-site teambuilding option, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism in New York’s Finger Lakes region has created the Sweet Treat Trail. The self-guided tasting tour visits family-owned farms and other local businesses such as a creamery, apiary, and orchard. Guests can sample Maple Syrup cotton candy, honey-lavender biscotti, and ice cream made with locally grown and produced products. Through November 1, the tourism office offers a pass that guests can have stamped at stops on the tour to be eligible to win a holiday basket of treats from the trail.

Photo: Courtesy of Finger Lakes Sweet Treat Trail

'Top Chef'-Inspired Competitions

At the Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain hotel in Arizona, chef Beau MacMillan leads groups in a “Top Chef Meets Iron Chef” competition. After revealing a secret ingredient, he gives groups 30 minutes to create a dish—which may be a dessert—for a panel of judges. After the winners are announced, groups move on to a three-course lunch or dinner with wine service. All participants receive signed Sanctuary aprons and the chef’s cookbook.

Photo: Courtesy of Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain

Fried chicken with buttermilk dressing, served with a house-made biscuit, long-cooked cavolo nero, summer succotash salad, and a chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie, by the Larder in Los Angeles

Photo: Aaron Cook/AACK Studio

A bento box filled with heirloom beet and watercress salad with goat cheese and spiced pistachios; open-faced roasted chicken salad on a pretzel croissant; and olive-oil-poached salmon with tomato-fennel chutney and balsamic roasted vegetable skewers, by Truffleberry Market in Chicago

Photo: Courtesy of Truffleberry Market

Classic roast beef sandwiches and Italian sandwiches with layered meats, shredded Parmesan Reggiano and Asiago cheeses, red onion, pepperoncini, and Farmhouse vinaigrette served on baguettes, by Santa Barbara Catering Company in Tempe, Arizona

Photo: Courtesy of Santa Barbara Catering

Slow-roasted salmon with cucumber-dill yogurt sauce, served with a mixed grain salad, broccoli with arbol chili, and berries with crème fraîche, by the Larder in Los Angeles

Photo: Aaron Cook/AACK Studio

Sesame noodle salad with Asian vegetables, garnished with spicy tuna and California rolls, served in individual take-out containers, by Abigail Kirsch in New York

Photo: Andre Maier

Gulf shrimp with house-made cocktail sauce, by Royal Fig Catering in Austin, Texas

Photo: SMS Photography

Build-your-own tacos with fresh tortillas and assorted fillings, including carne asada, carnitas, and mushroom, plus toppings and sides, by Otto's Tacos in New York

Photo: Courtesy of Otto's Tacos

Roasted salmon with citrus vinaigrette served on a bed of fresh greens, served with a baguette roll, seasonal fruit, or a chocolate chip cookie, by Bi-Rite Catering in San Francisco

Photo: Molly DeCoudreaux Photography

Nova Scotia lobster in chive mayonnaise, served in an artisanal bun, along with kettle chips, bean, snow and snap peas, broccoli salad, and a chocolate whoopie pie, by En Ville Event Design & Catering in Toronto

Photo: Simon Burn

House-made hummus, handmade dolmas, cucumbers, marinated olives, halloumi cheese, and pita triangles, by Bi-Rite Catering in San Francisco

Photo: Molly DeCoudreaux Photography

Deep-dish pizzas with a house-made olive oil crust, tomato ragout, mozzarella, and basil, served with tiny shakers of Parmesan, garlic powder, oregano, and red pepper flakes, by Abigail Kirsch in New York

Photo: Courtesy of Abigail Kirsch

Artichoke and four-cheese focaccia flatbread with marinara sauce, by Bi-Rite Catering in San Francisco

Photo: Molly DeCoudreaux Photography

Tiramisu in a jar with chocolate ganache, espresso biscuits, and vanilla mascarpone, by Eatertainment in Toronto

Photo: Courtesy of Eatertainment

Wolfgang Puck Catering's Chef Shadowboxes

For a recent event at the Perot Museum of Science and Nature in Dallas, Wolfgang Puck Catering employed a "chef shadowbox." Meant to provide a strong visual behind a more standard food station, a chef in a shadowbox prepared appetizers as guests looked on.

Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering

Wolfgang Puck's Frozen Sushi Station

Other new stations at Wolfgang Puck Catering include a frozen sushi station. The activation displays fresh fish and sushi rolls atop illuminated ice blocks with frozen orchids and other flowers inside.

Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering

Blue Plate's Caramel Apple Station

In Chicago, Blue Plate Catering brings candy apple stations to holiday parties. Treats include apples dipped in caramel and assorted toppings and sliced up into snack-size portions.

Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate Catering

Blue Plate's Burrata Action Station

The catering firm also has a new burrata action station. Staffers top the creamy cheese with toasted pine nuts and Italian muscat syrup. The snack is gluten-free.

Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate Catering

Eatertainment's Salmon Gravlax Station

Toronto catering firm Eatertainment has a new chef action station devoted to salmon gravlax. Salmon is hung from hooks above the station and is sliced to order in front of guests. The raw fish is then chopped and served with root-vegetable crisps, miniature greens, and spiced yogurt.

Photo: Courtesy of Eatertainment

Eatertainment's Bar Cart Station

The Toronto firm is also using bar carts to display food items. One such spread, wheeled to tables at an event, offered snacks such as frittatas, foie gras, sliders, and lobster.

Photo: Courtesy of Eatertainment

Limelight's Fruit Wallpaper

In Chicago, catering firm Limelight has an innovative format for serving fruit skewers. The fruits are inserted into a custom wall with thematic wallpaper design (which varies for different events). Guests approach the wall and pull of a skewer and can dip the fruit in sauces that are arrayed on a nearby table.

Photo: Courtesy of Limelight

Limelight's "One Potato, Two Potato" Station

Instead of serving French fries at a stationary table, Limelight has used a wheelbarrow to deliver Belgian frites at events. The fries are served in cones, and assorted sauces are displayed on the side.

Photo: Artisan Events

Limelight's "Smash It" Station

Limelight's "Smash It" station offers assorted homemade chocolate bark in flavors such as dark chocolate with dried cherries. Mallets next to the sweets let guests "smash" off a snack-size piece of the bark.

Photo: Erika DuFour Photography

Roar Events' Interactive Margarita Station

Roar Events produced a summertime event at Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa in Southern California. The dinner had a modern Mexican theme and featured an interactive margarita station. Guests chose the type and flavor of their tequila, as well as one of many specialty salts.

Photo: Courtesy of Roar Events