Catering

As an interactive alternative to a stationary raw bar, roaming servers from Oysters XO shuck oysters on the spot, equipped with buckets of oysters on ice hanging from their waists. The company currently offers its services in the New York area and has plans to expand to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Mexico City in 2013.

DNA Events in Los Angeles has introduced its Boozy Ice Cream Bar for events. The service involves female staffers dressed as retro cigarette girls serving trays of alcoholic milkshakes, like the Drunken Girl Scout Cookie, a mix of rum, vanilla ice cream, fresh mint, crème de menthe, and chocolate chips.

In the TLC section, cake-pop trees held confections from Georgetown Cupcake, the bakery featured on the network's show DC Cupcakes.

Truffleberry Market, a Chicago catering company, has plenty of pastel-hued dishes on its menu. For a recent baby shower, the firm used hollowed-out lemons to hold its Meyer lemon meringue panna cotta. A fresh green leaf on top of the dish added a springy, verdant feel.

Rather than a traditional plated salad, the Washington Hilton's catering team set each table with an array of antipasti served family-style including white bean salad, Italian meats, cheese, olives, and peppers.

Another cake created for the "Birthday" video included a six-layer treat covered in rainbow candies. Each inside layer was stacked in rainbow order, from red to purple.

In December, Flora Aghababyan, chief cake designer for Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, created a three-foot gingerbread replica of the Wynn surrounded by the boutiques of Wynn and Encore Esplanades. The all-edible work was handcrafted from 4,500 gingerbread tiles, rolled fondant, and sugar. It weighed more than 295 pounds and took 21 days to construct, with turrets, façades, and towers all housing various Wynn and Encore retailers—like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Cartier—with their logos reproduced in sugar icing and fondant. The cake was on display at the property’s buffet throughout the holiday season.

Jewell Events Catering provided a spread of savory snacks, including ancho-chili-rubbed bacon lollipops on long bamboo skewers, stemming from a purple cabbage base.