New Yorkers tend to be a sophisticated, time-pressed, picky people who are always looking for the next big thing. And the event planners who host and feed this crowd don't have an easy time pleasing them. So keep these three trends in mind when planning menus.
Go Organic
If you've ever found yourself in one of the long lines at Manhattan's three Whole Foods Markets, you won't find the organic food trend hard to believe. With three more local Whole Foods stores on the way, and the word "organic" on every other menu item at upscale restaurants, it's a term caterers are hearing requested more and more. "It's a buzzword, and that's a good thing," says Abigail Kirsch, Caterer and Events' Carl Hedin. "And it reads well with guests."
Generally defined as food produced that is neither genetically modified nor grown with pesticides, organic food is nothing new for the Cleaver Company's Mary Cleaver. After 25 years in business, Cleaver is finding that the rest of the city is finally catching onto the wisdom of organic, sustainable, seasonal catering, and can attribute a 3 percent increase in business—a figure she expects will rise—over the past year to the growing organic food trend.
That figure is modest compared to the growth of the organic food industry over all, which has grown at a rate of 20 percent annually over the past few years—from $10.8 billion in 2003, to $15 billion in 2005—according to the Organic Trade Association, a business association and lobbying group for the North American organic industry. Reasons include consumers' rising health-consciousness and interest in organic food production's positive effects on the environment.
Nancy Lee Russell, production coordinator for PR agency the Thomas Collective, looks to Cleaver to cater food-centric events for her spirits clients. "We need to serve high-quality food that pairs well with the product," Russell says. At a recent reception for Glenlivet Scotch, hors d'oeuvres included wild mushroom quesadillas with roasted poblano peppers and cilantro crème fraîche.
Organic food "has been creeping up the last couple of years, but I think it has become more prevalent in the past few months," says Chris Siverson, executive chef at Bridgewaters. "For me, it looks like it is going to really start pushing forward. Between the Food Network and Whole Foods and the newspapers that are writing about it, planners are becoming more educated about the quality and origin of the products."
"People get tired of the same stuff over and over again, and to freshen [a dish] with something that is organic or locally produced is something people like and recognize," says Heather Umlah of Fancy Girl Catering, which recently submitted a menu to Nvey, an Australian cosmetics company launching in February with an event serving all-organic food.
The Dia Center's director of external affairs, Laura Raicovich, took advantage of those local resources for the center's May gala in Beacon, New York. Raicovich worked with cookbook author Barbara Kafka and Garrison, New York-based Fresh Company to create a menu rich with local, organic, sustainable ingredients from the Hudson River Valley.
Keep It Interesting
While ceviche is going nowhere, a more eclectic mix of South American dishes are on the rise as a way to introduce new flavors and dishes to diners who have grown tired of sushi bars and crab cakes. "I've had five requests for Brazilian menus in the past week," Jessica Alton of Thomas Preti Caterers said in mid-January. The growing interest in specific regions of the continent has prompted Abigail Kirsch to offer arepas—a
Venezuelan dish of filled corn pancakes—on its new spring menus.
For last summer's Watermill Center benefit in the Hamptons, Olivier Cheng served a Brazilian menu of seared red snapper with avocado, orange, and olive followed by a Brazilian shrimp stew with coconut over rice. Great Performances executed a Brazilian menu for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Armani-sponsored benefit in October.
Fancy Girl's Umlah, whose clients are predominantly in the fashion and beauty industries, gets several requests for yerba matte, an Argentinean tea, at the events she caters. "People ask for it because it's like the new green tea: it's super-high in antioxidants," she says.
For the opening of the Atmosphere clothing store in SoHo, Shiraz NYC served an all-Brazilian menu that included camarao ao catupiry (shrimp and catupiry cheese on fried yucca cake), and feijoada (black bean cake topped with braised pork). Shiraz's Shai Tertner guesses the popularity comes with the associations Brazilian fare conjures. "When you think of Brazil, what is the first thought that comes to your mind? Carnival, color, beautiful people, tropical, sexy food and drinks," he says. "Why wouldn't anyone want to associate themselves with something that is sexy, and fun, and bring it in to their environment?"
But Keep It Short
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more harried urbanite than a New Yorker, and planners are finding it more difficult to get guests to show up at an event, and to keep them happy once they're there. And when you combine 800 people with an event packed with lots of different elements—speeches, an awards program, an auction, a performance, dancing—you'd better be flexible with the meal configuration.
"I've had clients totally forgo first courses now," Umlah says. "Sometimes they'll say, 'It's wintertime, let's do a soup sip cup as an hors d'oeurve and then let's launch right into the entrée.' Dinners are getting shorter." Hedin agrees: "There's a negative to keeping people tied to a table, so we're trying to provide avenues for people to engage."
For the Fashion Footwear Association of New York's (FFANY) annual Shoes on Sale fund-raiser for breast cancer charities, Kirsch's dim sum and tapas stations replaced the first course during the reception hour to allow guests to eat and bid on shoes in the event's silent auction. Guests sat for the miso black cod entrée and awards presentation, and then got up to mingle, dance, and watch a Neil Sedaka performance with an array of sweets available on tables. "It's always a goal to shorten the pace of the event," says Joe Moore, C.E.O. of FFANY, who planned the 800-person fund-raiser with Suzanne Handel of Resource & Event Management. "We've found that if we give people more time to talk, mingle, and network before the event, they're more willing to sit down for the program."
Abbreviated timing can also benefit the budget. "Sometimes it's an attempt to save costs because so many people leave before dessert and planners feel that the quantity can be lowered for desserts and coffee and all the service that's required for that," says The Catering Company's Suzanne Gilliam. Her company's variations on dessert include Belgian waffle bars, fill-yourown- pie stations, and mini—and portable—ice cream sandwiches and sundaes.
Another alternative to a three-course sit-down dinner is entire meals of small dishes. Vicki Shapiro, director of events and strategic partnerships at Gourmet magazine, used this format for the Gourmet Institute gala at Gotham
Hall in October. Shapiro worked with Thomas Preti to execute the menu, which featured seven varieties of hors d'oeuvres, two stations, and 11 different tapas. "It's a very food-focused group. Everything was tapas-sized, and the flavors were great because you got a variety of things," she says.
—Suzanne Ito
Posted 03.30.06
Related Stories
Watermill Benefit Mixes Brazilian Art and Food
Warhol Inspires Dia Benefit in Beacon
All-Star Team Plans BAM Benefit
Sting Performs at British Benefit
Shoe Sale Benefits Breast Cancer Charity
Go Organic
If you've ever found yourself in one of the long lines at Manhattan's three Whole Foods Markets, you won't find the organic food trend hard to believe. With three more local Whole Foods stores on the way, and the word "organic" on every other menu item at upscale restaurants, it's a term caterers are hearing requested more and more. "It's a buzzword, and that's a good thing," says Abigail Kirsch, Caterer and Events' Carl Hedin. "And it reads well with guests."
Generally defined as food produced that is neither genetically modified nor grown with pesticides, organic food is nothing new for the Cleaver Company's Mary Cleaver. After 25 years in business, Cleaver is finding that the rest of the city is finally catching onto the wisdom of organic, sustainable, seasonal catering, and can attribute a 3 percent increase in business—a figure she expects will rise—over the past year to the growing organic food trend.
That figure is modest compared to the growth of the organic food industry over all, which has grown at a rate of 20 percent annually over the past few years—from $10.8 billion in 2003, to $15 billion in 2005—according to the Organic Trade Association, a business association and lobbying group for the North American organic industry. Reasons include consumers' rising health-consciousness and interest in organic food production's positive effects on the environment.
Nancy Lee Russell, production coordinator for PR agency the Thomas Collective, looks to Cleaver to cater food-centric events for her spirits clients. "We need to serve high-quality food that pairs well with the product," Russell says. At a recent reception for Glenlivet Scotch, hors d'oeuvres included wild mushroom quesadillas with roasted poblano peppers and cilantro crème fraîche.
Organic food "has been creeping up the last couple of years, but I think it has become more prevalent in the past few months," says Chris Siverson, executive chef at Bridgewaters. "For me, it looks like it is going to really start pushing forward. Between the Food Network and Whole Foods and the newspapers that are writing about it, planners are becoming more educated about the quality and origin of the products."
"People get tired of the same stuff over and over again, and to freshen [a dish] with something that is organic or locally produced is something people like and recognize," says Heather Umlah of Fancy Girl Catering, which recently submitted a menu to Nvey, an Australian cosmetics company launching in February with an event serving all-organic food.
The Dia Center's director of external affairs, Laura Raicovich, took advantage of those local resources for the center's May gala in Beacon, New York. Raicovich worked with cookbook author Barbara Kafka and Garrison, New York-based Fresh Company to create a menu rich with local, organic, sustainable ingredients from the Hudson River Valley.
Keep It Interesting
While ceviche is going nowhere, a more eclectic mix of South American dishes are on the rise as a way to introduce new flavors and dishes to diners who have grown tired of sushi bars and crab cakes. "I've had five requests for Brazilian menus in the past week," Jessica Alton of Thomas Preti Caterers said in mid-January. The growing interest in specific regions of the continent has prompted Abigail Kirsch to offer arepas—a
Venezuelan dish of filled corn pancakes—on its new spring menus.
For last summer's Watermill Center benefit in the Hamptons, Olivier Cheng served a Brazilian menu of seared red snapper with avocado, orange, and olive followed by a Brazilian shrimp stew with coconut over rice. Great Performances executed a Brazilian menu for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Armani-sponsored benefit in October.
Fancy Girl's Umlah, whose clients are predominantly in the fashion and beauty industries, gets several requests for yerba matte, an Argentinean tea, at the events she caters. "People ask for it because it's like the new green tea: it's super-high in antioxidants," she says.
For the opening of the Atmosphere clothing store in SoHo, Shiraz NYC served an all-Brazilian menu that included camarao ao catupiry (shrimp and catupiry cheese on fried yucca cake), and feijoada (black bean cake topped with braised pork). Shiraz's Shai Tertner guesses the popularity comes with the associations Brazilian fare conjures. "When you think of Brazil, what is the first thought that comes to your mind? Carnival, color, beautiful people, tropical, sexy food and drinks," he says. "Why wouldn't anyone want to associate themselves with something that is sexy, and fun, and bring it in to their environment?"
But Keep It Short
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more harried urbanite than a New Yorker, and planners are finding it more difficult to get guests to show up at an event, and to keep them happy once they're there. And when you combine 800 people with an event packed with lots of different elements—speeches, an awards program, an auction, a performance, dancing—you'd better be flexible with the meal configuration.
"I've had clients totally forgo first courses now," Umlah says. "Sometimes they'll say, 'It's wintertime, let's do a soup sip cup as an hors d'oeurve and then let's launch right into the entrée.' Dinners are getting shorter." Hedin agrees: "There's a negative to keeping people tied to a table, so we're trying to provide avenues for people to engage."
For the Fashion Footwear Association of New York's (FFANY) annual Shoes on Sale fund-raiser for breast cancer charities, Kirsch's dim sum and tapas stations replaced the first course during the reception hour to allow guests to eat and bid on shoes in the event's silent auction. Guests sat for the miso black cod entrée and awards presentation, and then got up to mingle, dance, and watch a Neil Sedaka performance with an array of sweets available on tables. "It's always a goal to shorten the pace of the event," says Joe Moore, C.E.O. of FFANY, who planned the 800-person fund-raiser with Suzanne Handel of Resource & Event Management. "We've found that if we give people more time to talk, mingle, and network before the event, they're more willing to sit down for the program."
Abbreviated timing can also benefit the budget. "Sometimes it's an attempt to save costs because so many people leave before dessert and planners feel that the quantity can be lowered for desserts and coffee and all the service that's required for that," says The Catering Company's Suzanne Gilliam. Her company's variations on dessert include Belgian waffle bars, fill-yourown- pie stations, and mini—and portable—ice cream sandwiches and sundaes.
Another alternative to a three-course sit-down dinner is entire meals of small dishes. Vicki Shapiro, director of events and strategic partnerships at Gourmet magazine, used this format for the Gourmet Institute gala at Gotham
Hall in October. Shapiro worked with Thomas Preti to execute the menu, which featured seven varieties of hors d'oeuvres, two stations, and 11 different tapas. "It's a very food-focused group. Everything was tapas-sized, and the flavors were great because you got a variety of things," she says.
—Suzanne Ito
Posted 03.30.06
Related Stories
Watermill Benefit Mixes Brazilian Art and Food
Warhol Inspires Dia Benefit in Beacon
All-Star Team Plans BAM Benefit
Sting Performs at British Benefit
Shoe Sale Benefits Breast Cancer Charity
The Cleaver Company served handmade granola with organic blueberry yogurt, Hudson Valley berries, and honeydew spritzers at an Origins Cosmetics breakfast in August.
Shiraz NYC offers marinated seared coconut shrimp with cilantro tomatillo salsa on its Brazilian menu.
Abigail Kirsch, Caterer & Events, distributed multitiered stands laden with petit fours and confections to tables at the Fashion Footwear Association of New York's fund-raiser in October. The portable desserts signify that guests are not obliged to remain seated.
