Fun Catering Ideas

For a recent dessert display created by Chicago-based Sugar Chic Designs, Nicole Greene of Truffle Truffle contributed caramel chocolate-covered pretzels rolled in beer batter toffee and displayed in a cigar box.

At Art Basel Miami Beach’s Ten Great Years celebration last December, Shiraz provided cigar-shaped mini Cubans stuffed with ham, cornichons, and cheese. Servers passed them around in repurposed cigar boxes.

In October 2011, Macquarie Private Wealth hosted a Mad Men-inspired cocktail party in Toronto. Servers dressed as cigarette girls passed around sushi in the shape of cigars, created by Appetizingly Yours Events & Catering.

Robert Gilbert, the executive chef of special events and catering operations at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, creates edible cigars that are served as antipasto. Air-cured smoked pastrami, provolone cheese, boursin cheese, roasted red peppers, and paprika are minced up and rolled up into grape leaves to look like cigars. The edible ash is made from grilled, smoked and pulverized banana leaves.

Another version of Walt Disney World Resort’s edible cigar, served in a mini ashtray filled with salt rocks.

At Moto in Chicago, Chef Homaro Cantu creates a Cuban cigar with edible ash. The recipe involves brined pulled pork shoulder wrapped in sliced white bread and collard greens, dipped in red pepper puree. The cigar is then served in an ash tray with ash made from ground sesame seeds and tapioca maltodextrin.

Close, but no cigar: Mena Catering in Miami creates eggnog crème brûlée served in a clear ashtray with an edible chocolate cigarette.

Rustic potato pancakes with homemade apple chutney and pickled red cabbage fennel slaw, by Naturally Delicious Caterers & Events in Brooklyn