Catering Ideas

Sant Ambroeus is offering an appetizer called "salmone fresco," consisting of smoked salmon topped with chives and a light balsamic reduction.

Pinch Food Design offers a different spin on babyback ribs, serving the barbecue classic on a spoon-shaped skewer with creamed corn and jalapeños.

SD26 Events' eggplant terrine features sauteed eggplant that is layered with fresh tomatoes and herbs then baked in the oven. The dish is served with a dab of basil pesto and garnished with a parmigiano reggiano-flavored milk foam.

Created by Hell's Kitchen contestant and chef Guy Vaknin, Beyond Sushi is a new store serving vegetarian sushi. Offering catering for private events, the organic menu features unrefined fruits and vegetables wrapped in six-grain and black Chinese forbidden rice, topped with tofu and veggie puree sauces in flavors like jalapeno-wasabi, toasted-cayenne, carrot-ginger, shitake-teriyaki, mango-chili, and white-miso.

The Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center's catering department is now offering Tuscan-style chicken breast seasoned with Italian herbs and served with artichoke, fennel, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and pomodoro sauce.

Now being served on catering menus at Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld is a compressed local watermelon salad with heirloom tomatoes, basil, baby arugula, feta, and a cayenne vinaigrette.

Chef Ralph Rendsland of Three2Oh Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Systems, has launched his custom dessert trailer, Ice Cream Social Club. The trailer, designed to look like an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, is equipped to make custom ice creams, gelatos and sorbets on site with a nitrogen tank and induction cooking systems. The menu includes Bananas Foster, Cherries Jubilee, root beer floats and homemade ice cream sandwiches.

The Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Hotel's newest themed banquet beverage station is the "Moonshine Station." The setup has a Southern feel, with drinks like the Cosmoshine (a mix of cranberry juice, triple sex, lime and moonshine) and the Cherry Coke (a mix of cherry-flavored moonshine, cola, ice and fresh cherries). Additional flavors include the Melonshine, Apple Pieshine, Rise & Shine, Palmer Moon Tea, and the Moonshine Mojito.

For dessert at the recent Give Kids the World gala, the Peabody Orlando served a handcrafted chocolate "crate" filled with layers of chocolate mousse and Arabica coffee crème brûlée, accompanied by a wild cherry praline wafer and almond cookie "fossils" sitting in pistachio dust. The dessert was presented on a plate with a hand-screened image of a dinosaur, along with a chocolate rope, edible stamps, and a chocolate dusting brush.

At the DigitalNow conference at Disney's Contemporary Resort in April, attendees were treated to French macarons dipped in teacups filled with green tea rice pudding and hibiscus cream.

One of the Peabody Orlando's newest hors d'oeuvres is a chicken salad canapé with crushed smoked almonds and tarragon mousse.

The Ritz-Carlton Orlando and JW Marriott Orlando, sister properties located at Grande Lakes, are offering a new concept for clients looking to host a large banquet function: outdoor events reminiscent of food-truck bazaars. The rented trucks serve as decor elements, and provide a facility for catering staff to finish and plate the food, which is all prepared in the hotels' main kitchens. Planners can help choose the trucks' names to reflect the food being served, for example, or to incorporate the name of an employee.

As guests continue to focus on healthier choices, the special events and catering department at Walt Disney World Resorts reports that they are monitoring and reducing portion size. One example of their new bite-size dishes is the smoked copper river salmon, beluga caviar and caramelized onion foam cones.

Walt Disney World Resorts has also been using Anti-Griddles to create flash-frozen tropical yogurt pops with Pop Rocks.