2/16
This week was full of events, office work and aesthetically pleasing food. Wednesday turned from a 7 hour day into a 5 hour day which is always awesome. While we were waiting for an event to end at 6 so we could set up for a big event Thursday, I did some office work involving quote making for clients and had done a food drop to George Fox University. A food drop is when we transport food made in house and cater events elsewhere, GFU is a constant client so the drops are easy and I get to create my own food set up. When I got back, the event that was supposed to end at 6 left early so we did what we needed for set up and got out!
Thursday was an 8 to 5 kind of day, we had a big event for OHSU nurses and patients involved with Parkinson’s disease. They had over 90 guests, massage tables, two buffet lines and a particular set up that you can see on my instagram and linked photo on here. Mid-event, I was sent to do a food drop at GFU, once I got back we served food including salad, dinner rolls, apricot chicken, couscous and brownies. We made special plates for vegans/vegetarians/gluten free. My boss headed out early for an open house at our bistro so it was up to me to direct the entire clean up of the event, pretty cool being in charge and being trusted like that!
Friday was an easier day but filled with a lot of useful information. My compost meeting is finally confirmed for the 23rd which I am looking forward to. As I was learning the ropes working with client requests our chef, Jim, came in and surprised us with a meal he was practicing on. It was asparagus and prawns over rainbow couscous (I couldn’t have the prawns because pregnant, boo). A ver blanc was drizzled over the top and let me tell you, I have never tasted a more delicious sauce! I wanted to lick the bowl clean of that ver blanc. On top were microgreens of radishes. The perk of working for an upscale catering company is the amazing food.
Something I found interesting this week is when my boss and I were going over menu’s, she asked me why she wouldn’t offer a client caprese right now. I honestly had no idea because caprese is bomb all of the time! She said because tomatoes are not in season. May-October are usually decent times to get tomatoes because they are softer, taste better and fresher from California than when they are shipped now from Mexico. She always aims for menus that are seasonal.
Another aspect that stuck out to me in forming menus for clients is something called bites per hour. Our boss has an engineering degree so she calculates literally everything precisely. We were forming an event for 200 people and the way she can offer them the right amount of food without them running out or having too much is calculating bites. The first hour of served food, clients will eat around 5 “bites” (an example would would be a prawn or a cracker and cheese). The second hour I think it went down to 3 and the third hour it was 2. She calculates this into dozens, I honestly got a little lost but there is an event I have yet to see where there isn’t enough food served. Food aesthetics are just as important to running this company as food math is, who would have thought!