Vegan “ceviche” with lime-marinated cashews, hearts of palm, cucumber, leche de tigre, tiny cilantro, avocado mousse, and crispy blue corn
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Heirloom Babe Farm baby beets with Sonoma goat cheese mousse and California pistachio
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Brentwood Farms street corn with lime aioli, cotija, and tajin spice
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Summer peaches with housemade ricotta, purple kalelettes, toasted farro, almonds, and honey vinaigrette
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Grilled cheese with heirloom tomato soup
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Mashed potatoes with toppings including smoked bacon, crème fraîche, chives, and Maldon sea salt
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Mini jars filled with Harry’s Berries strawberry shortcake (left) and vegan coconut chia seed tapioca (right)
Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Food vendor the Gastro Garage created artisanal sweet and savory doughnuts, finished on-site with power tools and flame torches by staff costumed to resemble a pit crew. Tool boxes, welding helmets, and oil tin cans decorated the food station.
Photo: Mike Bugaoan
Blue and purple accents and uplighting decorated the party space, and cars—both toy and life-size—added to the look.
Photo: Sage Justice
For the circus-theme night, roving entertainers included a fire-eating and boa constrictor contortionist, plus a stilt walker. Dancers were made up with exaggerated costuming and hair styling to give them a mad look, and a circus ringleader and a costumed panda greeted guests as they entered the venue.
Photo: Sage Justice
Vintage circus-character banners, featuring characters such as the "Master Juggler," decorated the space.
Photo: Sage Justice
Vintage props and decor included giant polka-dot balls and trunks, flanking strategic areas such as the media wall to create points of interest.
Photo: Michael Munson
Element’s “Balancing Act” featured a living wall of moss and greenery with letters spelling out the eco-conscious brand’s tagline. The floor mimicked a natural bike path with wood chips and grass. Three green bicycles were mounted in front of the greenery as a photo op for attendees.
Photo: Courtesy of Marriott
For W Hotels “Color Boldly,” BMF built an all-white room that served as a blank canvas. The room’s centerpiece presented six paint colors that corresponded to six W experiences, which were described on labels.
Photo: Courtesy of Marriott
Guests were invited to take brushes and rollers to paint what they wanted on the walls. The word “luxury” was displayed on the back wall.
Photo: Courtesy of Marriott
Sheraton’s “Revolution” scratch-off wall was inspired by the brand’s transformation and the power of community. The initial black matte wall displayed gloss black negative connotations about the brand, including “old” and “tired.” Guests could take hotel keycards to scratch away those worlds.
Photo: Courtesy of Marriott
Wolfgang Puck Catering's Chef Shadowboxes
For a recent event at the Perot Museum of Science and Nature in Dallas, Wolfgang Puck Catering employed a "chef shadowbox." Meant to provide a strong visual behind a more standard food station, a chef in a shadowbox prepared appetizers as guests looked on.
Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering
Wolfgang Puck's Frozen Sushi Station
Other new stations at Wolfgang Puck Catering include a frozen sushi station. The activation displays fresh fish and sushi rolls atop illuminated ice blocks with frozen orchids and other flowers inside.
Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering
Blue Plate's Caramel Apple Station
In Chicago, Blue Plate Catering brings candy apple stations to holiday parties. Treats include apples dipped in caramel and assorted toppings and sliced up into snack-size portions.
Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate Catering
Limelight's "One Potato, Two Potato" Station
Instead of serving French fries at a stationary table, Limelight has used a wheelbarrow to deliver Belgian frites at events. The fries are served in cones, and assorted sauces are displayed on the side.
Photo: Artisan Events
Limelight's "Smash It" Station
Limelight's "Smash It" station offers assorted homemade chocolate bark in flavors such as dark chocolate with dried cherries. Mallets next to the sweets let guests "smash" off a snack-size piece of the bark.
Photo: Erika DuFour Photography
In addition to the ferris wheel, Occasions Caterers provided a Washington-theme buffet of savory bites such as crab cakes, beer-braised short rib and cheddar sandwiches, Iberico spare ribs, and corn souffles.
Photo: Alex Quijano/Catersource
Edible flowers are another decorative garnish that can be used with meats or served with desserts, like this key lime fruit tart topped with strawberry hibiscus fruit leather, and garnished with strawberry sauce painting, lemon sauce, and micro edible flowers.
Photo: Erin Hession Photography
At the Engage! wedding summit held in Colorado in 2014, the event's dessert party offered an easy-to-eat lollipop version of campfire s'mores. (The event's rustic location inspired other various camp-inspired details.)
Photo:Â Tammy Swales/Engage!
Last year, Abigail Kirsch Catering in New York began offering colorful mini ice cream sandwiches for events. Flavors include pistachio coconut pineapple and carrot butter pecan caramel, served in matching foil for easy, neat eating.
Photo: Andre Maier
At the so-called "Anti-Gala" for the Lowline in New York in 2012, ice cream sandwiches and gelato provided by Lower East Side food vendors Melt and Il Laboratorio del Gelato served as kid-style dessert that appealed to adults.
Photo:Â Andrew Martin/BizBash
The first wave of savory passed hors d'oeuvres included asparagus and gruyere beignets.
Photo: Tony Brown/Imijination Photo
Occasions also passed espresso-crusted smoked beef carpaccio served on individual forks with a spicy herb salad as part of the early menu.
Photo: Tony Brown/Imijination Photo
Susan Gage Caterers prepared a watermelon radish and citrus salad as the first course for the Atlantic Media Welcome Dinner on Friday night at the home of C.E.O. David Bradley. The menu also included seared sea bass with a bell pepper coulis, ginger basmati rice with pistachios, and julienne snow peas.
Photo: Max Taylor
Time and People set up an adult lemonade stand serving specialty versions of favorite springtime cocktails at their joint Friday-night party at the St. Regis hotel. The names of the cocktails had a political theme: the tequila-based "Primary Punch" and a vodka-based drink called the "Delegate."
Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Time and People
A dessert buffet included treats such as white chocolate rocky road squares (pictured), peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich cookies, packaged brownies from Dog Tag Bakery, and banana tartlets.
Photo: D. Channing Muller for BizBash
At a 40th birthday party, the JDK Group strung doughnuts as decor above the serving table.
Photo: Shannon Confair Photography
At a graduation party designed by Chicago-based Christina Janda Design & Events, serving spoons with French onion bonbons spelled out “congrats” on a tray and incorporated the guest of honor’s favorite food in a fun, unexpected way.
Photo: Collin Pierson
The Boston Children's Museum’s 2013 gala included a rather meta dessert table: The entire display took the form of a giant cake, decorated with paper flowers, and set with desserts such as cake pops, mini whoopie pies, mini Twinkies, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Photo: Scott Indermaur
In 2013, the New York City Opera staged the United States premiere of the opera Anna Nicole. The dessert table got a boudoir-inspired look, with a menu was written on mirrors in lipstick. Candy overflowed from jewelry boxes and glass jars, and Lucite displays offered pink cotton candy presented in paper cones.
Photo: Elena Olivo
Montreal-based caterer Agnus Dei created a popular interactive sorbet station. Rings of raspberry, mango, and coconut sorbet spun around a wheel, while guests simply had to hold a scoop up to the device to build their own cone.
Photo: Beth Kormanik/BizBash
In the food area, colorful vegetables and herbs in tin cans provided a rustic contrast to the high-tech spaces inside.
Photo: Beth Kormanik/BizBash
Attendees could eat their words, literally, at an installation from Glasgow Studio that turned their tweets into dried pasta. A wheel of alphabet pasta would spell out the words of tweets from attendees who used the hashtag #EatThat. Clear bags holding the pasta also had stickers printed with the original tweet.
Photo: Beth Kormanik/BizBash
Event Catering in Chicago
Brittany Ferrin and her husband and co-executive chef, Vaidotas Karsokas, launched catering company Truffleberry Market in 2008, with the goal of making everything by hand with artisanal ingredients. They recently added savory ice cream cones to their offerings: Handmade wonton cones are filled with creamy burrata cheese and drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar; a sun-dried tomato stands in for the cherry on top.
Photo: Courtesy of Truffleberry Market
Mini Cupcakes in New York
Baked by Melissa offers a giant gumball machine that dispenses pods containing the company’s signature mini cupcakes at events. The machine can fit 2,000 pods, with a minimum order of 1,000.
Photo: Courtesy of Baked by Melissa
