Catering Ideas

Aaron’s Catering has a new menu item suitable as an hors d’oeuvre or in place of a salad. The base of the “molecular diablo” is mozzarella cheese that has been liquefied and reformed to look like a hard-boiled egg white. Heirloom tomato foam makes the faux yolk, and capsulized balsamic vinegar looks like caviar. The piece is served on a bed of arugula. Eaten together, it is intended to taste similar to a Caprese salad.

Rouge Tomate, the Green Auction's food sponsor for all three consecutive years, served light, yet hearty finger foods for guests. Items included cow's milk ricotta gnudi, fava bean crostini, grass-fed beef tartare, Tombo tuna poke, foie gras and duck liver crostini, and spring radish. Caterer Mary Giuliani helped coordinate the spread.

Hors d'oeuvres included meatballs topped with smoked mozzarella served in spoons.

A wooden frame held deep-fried pasta in paper cones and envelopes of napkins. The filling fare included a combination of shrimp, avocado, herbs, and lemon; there were also chicken and meat combos.

Hors d'oeuvres from C2 Catering were served on granite trays. Items included (from the left) falafel ice cream cones with sweet potato hummus and a mashed potato rosette, miso-glazed black cod burger on a pink glitter brioche bun, candy apple lobster lollypop with a gooseberry plum injection sauce, hot pot chili, and winter melon soup topped with duck salsa and nitrogen-frozen blueberries.

The MSNBC menu, designed by Occasions Caterers, served warm, crisp bacon on tiny hooks.

Design Cuisine served tiny blueberry pies on sticks at Tammy Haddad’s garden brunch on Saturday.

Eatertainment designed the V.I.P. menu and played with the colours and shapes from the event invitation. Each plate had the name of the dish and the spirograph design from the invitation across the top. For the first course, they served cider braised beet with poached pear, Benedictine blue and spicy candied pecan, and an herb salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

During the reception, caterwaiters served tea sandwiches shaped like hearts, spades, and diamonds on trays inlayed with playing cards.

Trays were decorated with nature-inspired tropes including birds and nests of eggs.

Creative Edge Parties served bite-size fare on four-tiered rolling carts that allowed for ease of movement. Complementing these pieces were passed hors d'oeuvres like mini lobster rolls and B.L.T. sandwiches.

In keeping with the New York taxi's iconic color scheme, Mary Giuliani Catering & Events served red velvet cake balls topped with a black-and-yellow checkered fondant for dessert. The caterer also passed truffled grilled cheese on black trays, and a sushi bar was designed as an ode to the carmaker's Japanese heritage.

"The Garden" was created out of toasted pumpernickel bread for dirt and plantings of baby carrots, asparagus spears, and zucchini, as well as baby tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella flowers.

The menu, with items like chorizo and preserved lemon-stuffed olive montadito (pictured), incorporated Spanish and French flavours and was inspired by Picasso's homes in Barcelona and Paris.

During the cocktail reception, waitstaff passed canapes by Bite Food, including sweet pea dumplings, crispy baby turnips, and a butterfly-shaped dish of bacalao, lotus root crisps, green garlic mash, and chives (pictured).

The first course of the meal was preset prior to the guests' arrival and included dinner rolls, seared venison bites, and spring asparagus tarts. The centerpieces consisted of small burlap sacks filled with air ferns, tree peonies, and dahlias, which the guests could take home with them.

The meal began with a bright beet salad.

Wolfgang Puck Catering serviced the event, prepping everything from corn dogs to Chinese food.

Chefs from Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth created an inventive menu with items like "Large and Small Shellfish in a Pool of Tears."

Guests were served soup from a teapot. An edible pocket watch crust rested on top.

Classic Italian cuisine inspired the evening’s menu, which began with an appetizer of whole baby lobster (an homage to Schiaparelli's famous lobster-print dress) accompanied by a julienne of vegetables with caviar. The main entrée was a veal Milanese served with arugula, fennel, and apricot salad, as well as roasted fingerling potatoes, and was accompanied by a Gaja sito Moresco, Langhe, Piemonte 2010. Miniature desserts inspired by Schiaparelli and Prada designs include violet tarts, chocolate petit fours with red lips, and butterfly, shoe, and flame-shaped cookies, all served with coffee.

Reception hors d'oeuvres included caviar bites. The luxury summit program included speakers representing luxury brands in fashion, beauty, automotive, spirits, and financial services, as well as journalists and political commentators.

The dessert, an ice cream pyramid and glitter balls, was custom created by the Beverly Hilton to reflect the "natural crystals and the Lost City of Atlantis" theme that Cirque du Soleil's Dominique Lemieux gave the students for their costume design assignment.

A conveyor belt rotated hors d'oeuvres and live-auction items.

Guests picked up their hors d'oeuvres from a food-o-matic cafeteria-style vending machine.

The catering company also offered small plates, like orecchiette pasta in a creamy black truffle sauce.

The first course consisted of a tin of smoked salmon rillettes, Tellicherry peppercorns, candied Maui onions, pickled beet juice, and cucumber relish with liquorice. It was served with a salad of Belgian endive and cocoa beans atop toasted bread.

Truffleberry Market prepared bright, seasonal bites. Items included cubes of chilled watermelon with blackberry syrup, fresh mint, and Parmesan cheese.

The menu also included seared ahi tuna sushi rolls with black sesame and fresh ginger.

Canapes served on large silver platters included petite croque monsieurs and madames, pheasant under glass bites (pictured), and Beau Soleil oysters in their shells and topped with vinegar and shallot pearls.

New to the event this year was a "Food Truck Gallery," which offered snack-size samples of dishes from Big Star, Bridgeport Pastry, Brown Bag Lunch Truck, Chicago Schnitzel King, Curry Cruiser, Hummingbird Kitchen, Taquero Fusion, Tamale Spaceship, Traffic Jam, and Waygu Wagon.

Meanwhile, a roving performer offered snacks from a tray that appeared to dangle from antlers affixed to her head.

Outside the House of Blues, Vizzi Truck served three kinds of sliders along with branded Signature Sounds water bottles.

In addition to the main food station, two dessert stands were set up featuring sweets from Coolhaus and Pie Corps (pictured). At the latter, guests could also take home prepackaged jars of fruit cobbler.

As a playful way to add to the visuals, Sublime Catering worked with Kim Graham Associates to create vibrantly coloured event menu. Dishes included a chicken salad with green peas and pesto, served in a green pepper cup.

The blue-hued bite was Parisienne potatoes topped with blue-dyed whitefish mousse and blue sea salt.

Other dessert options included bites of cotton candy that, with LED lights, looked as though they were glowing in the dark.

Several food carts were spread out throughout the event's footprint, offering small baskets of French fries and several taco options, including steak and fish.

Shiraz's menu items included oil-cured sardines, sweet braised eel, and horseradish-scented popcorn.

Poste restaurant served a twist on the classic s'mores with a bourbon-flavored marshmallow on a graham cookie with bacon-chocolate drizzle and a candied cherry.

To reflect the brand's request for the food served to reflect four distinct cuisines—Russian, Asian, Italian, and American comfort—Shiraz Events turned the back room into a "tasting plate" experience.

At Carlson Wagonlit Travel's late July gathering, snacks matched with the retro theme. Served in spoons, on square plates, and in decorative bowls, menu items included assorted deviled eggs, Caesar-salad spring rolls, and BLT-stuffed tomatoes.

Nathan Myhrvold, author of Modernist Cuisine, worked with his team to prepare cryo-shucked oysters on the half shell with sunchoke cream and picked roses. Cyro-shucking is a technique that involves freezing oysters and letting their shells open as they slowly thaw.

At Congressman Jim Clyburn's "Salute to South Carolina" cocktail party, guests will sample La-tea-da's pickle bar that will include spicy pickled okra, ginger mint carrots, garlic cucumbers, dilly green beans, sweet and spicy banana peppers, and curry cauliflower.

Convention guests will dine on petite Korean barbecue beef short rib tacos with kimchi and scallion cream.

The caterers are creating compressed peaches with Cardinal gin and serving them with Lexington pork barbecue and barbecue-spiced "pop rocks."

In the Haunted Mansion area, crab summer rolls with wakame and Thai chili were served from Ouija boards.

The buffet's offerings included miniature flower pots filled with veggies.

Alligator Pear passed hors d'oeuvres on spoons marked with the network's logo.

Fox-branded cups held mini desserts from Alligator Pear.

Pinch Food Design provided the bevy of light and sweet bites for the party. All desserts, passed on simple white trays, followed a pink, red, or white color palette, including a strawberry shortcake served atop a lemon scone (pictured).

On the red appetizer cart, offerings included cherry tomatoes with smoked salmon, presented in a flower-like display.

Playful menu items included cherry bocconcini with grape tomatoes with individual tubes of balsamic vinaigrette. Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex handled the catering.