A Catered Affair

Story By Julie Van Rosendaal

Ask yourself some honest questions to find out when you should DIY and when to seek professional help. 

The spring thaw does more than draw us out of our parkas. Its warmth defrosts our social lives, which have been in hibernation since the holidays. Spring is the time to plan parties. Showers and weddings are especially popular at this time of year, and patio season is not far off. As your guest list grows, you might feel nervous about prepping and serving food and drinks for so many. So what to do – take on the sometimes complicated coordination and preparation yourself, or call in a professional?

It’s a Saturday afternoon and I find myself perched on a stool in the corner of the commercial kitchen that professional chef Nicole Kammerer recently built for her successful catering business, called Nicole Gourmet. She’s multitasking – assembling hors d’oeuvres for a cocktail party and showing an assistant how to make a creamy horseradish sauce.

In terms of job stress, catering is up there with air traffic controller and kindergarten teacher. I’d be a tad more anxious if I was preparing exotic finger foods for 40, but Kammerer  is unruffled and chats easily, even though she has been prepping since 8:30 a.m. and was up until 10 p.m. last night, seamlessly pulling off a plated sit-down dinner for 22.

“No big deal,” she says nonchalantly. “Sit down meals aren’t as finicky as hors d’oeuvres.” The thought of timing a multi-course meal for 22 makes me feel dizzy, but this is exactly why people like me hire caterers. After all, pros such as Kammerer do this every day.

Classically trained at Vancouver’s Dubrulle Culinary School, she apprenticed in Paris. Upon returning to Canada, she was the first female chef hired by chef David Hawksworth at the high-end restaurant West, in Vancouver. After West, she worked her way up to sous-chef at Catch, a chic downtown Calgary restaurant. Most recently, she held the position of executive chef at Calgary’s Mercato Italian Market. So, unlike some of us, Kammerer isn’t about to scorch her béchamel because she’s trying to vacuum the living room while attempting to coax a toddler off her leg and simultaneously get dressed before the company arrives.

Unlike those charged with actually hosting a party, caterers like Kammerer focus solely on the menu, food service and sometimes bartending. Having an enormous kitchen with walk-in fridges, stainless steel tables and a fancy steam-injected oven that will cook a 12-pound turkey in an hour doesn’t hurt either. Kammerer stops assembling her Peking duck salad rolls to give me a quick demo of her new toy.

“What it does to the meat I can’t tell you,” she says, as eager a carnivore as I am. “The oven continuously measures its cabin environment, adjusting temperature and humidity.”

On the stainless steel table beside her are trays of miniature buns, baked to a buttery gold, destined to be stuffed with Thai pork burger patties.

“I like to make everything myself, from scratch,” Kammerer says as she deftly soaks rice paper wrappers and fills four at a time with tender shredded duck, slivered cucumber, spring onions and rice noodles. She spoons hoisin sauce over one and hands it to me, most likely in an attempt to slow down my barrage of questions. “That way I can be sure everything is fresh and just right.”

This attention to detail extends even to the tiny tomatoes, still on the vine, that she has oven-dried herself, and which occupy an entire shelf in one of several fridges. When it comes to ingredients, Kammerer sources it all out herself, hand-picking produce at Crossroads Market just down the street in Ramsay, one of Calgary’s oldest neighbourhoods. Her walk-in fridge is loaded with local goods: goat Gouda from Sylvan Star, Valta bison, Spring Creek Ranch beef, and chicken and pork from Rocky Mountain Game Meats. “Most of my meat comes from local producers.” She hands me a bag of small, firm Agria potatoes from Poplar Bluff Farms. “You have to try these, they’re amazing. Take them home for dinner.”

Besides being an enthusiastic supporter of local products, Kammerer is a savvy entrepreneur, extending her culinary services beyond the parties that keep most caterers in business. She offers in-house cooking classes, which often end in a sit-down dinner.

Her newest endeavour caters to the same busy Calgarians who have made gourmet-to-go a booming business. Nicole Gourmet’s Delivered Dinners take convenience a step further – right to a client’s door. There’s no need to wait for a special occasion to hire a caterer. Her clients can have a meal of, say, silky asparagus soup with lemon mascarpone cream ($6 per person) and 12-hour wine-braised Spring Creek beef short ribs, served with cauliflower gratin and roasted garlic potato purée ($16 per person) on a regular weeknight.

It’s simple – Kammerer sends a weekly menu by e-mail, her clients place an order by noon Sunday, and by Monday afternoon their meals are delivered, labelled with reheating instructions. Every Delivered Dinner arrives in appliance-safe Pyrex; all clients have to do is throw it back in the bin she provides, and she’ll pick it up. Delivered Dinner clients receive a weekly logbook with space to comment on food preferences and dietary needs.

“Most of my clients are regulars, and many are elderly or ill,” she told me. “Others are just busy.”

Whether planning weekly meals, an intimate gathering or full-blown event, when hiring a caterer you generally have the freedom to customize your menu. Edmonton chef and caterer Brad Smoliak agrees. “Every menu is different,” he says. “I like my guests to feel that I’m cooking just for them.” That personal service is not a stretch, when event circumstances vary so greatly. Some people might consider such an inconsistent working environment stressful, but Smoliak sees the constant flux as exciting opportunities for culinary creativity.

“I have the best job in Edmonton. I get to witness anniversaries, engagements, milestone birthday parties, and everyone’s always happy. It’s a great working environment,” Smoliak says. One of the most familiar chefs in the city, Smoliak has cooked for hockey players, celebrities, and even royalty, including Prince Albert of Monaco and Queen Elizabeth.

He served Prince Albert a brunch of New Orleans Eggs Benedict – crab cakes topped with poached eggs and cayenne-spiked hollandaise, with potato-andouille sausage hash. The Queen dined on mixed field greens with a wild berry vinaigrette, lamb loin, mushroom ragout, seven-vegetable sauté, and roasted potato. And Smoliak treated her like, well, royalty when he served honey mousse in a Bernard Callebeaut chocolate cup for dessert.

“They’ve all been great experiences,” Smoliak reminisces, “but my most memorable story is of cooking for a lady who planned her own 40th birthday party. As a surprise, her husband had her mother fly over from England. And then her brother, who was in the British Military, stationed in Iraq, flew in to surprise her as well. It was truly a great evening.”

Kammerer’s most memorable gig differs. Once, she was asked to cook a full-on medieval dinner, for which she had to do some background research in order to accurately represent the theme. Dinner luckily consisted of more than potatoes, was heady with spices such as cardamom and fennel, and she was required to dress up as a serving wench to dish it out.

Flexibility, paired with an understanding of what works and what doesn’t, is one of the benefits of hiring a caterer. With their experience, professionals can recommend appropriate menu ideas or themes you may not have considered.

“I suggested to one client that we do tapas (the Spanish term for a series of finger foods or small plates) instead of having a formal sit-down dinner, to create a more informal, social evening,” says Smoliak. “It was a huge success.” Likewise, Kammerer’s hors d’oeuvres menu features such delicacies as warm Forest Mushroom Cappuccino Shooters (latte foam, porcini dust), Caprese Platters and Beef Carpaccio Pita Chips with pine nut pesto and baby arugula – not menu items you’d attempt yourself or find in the freezer section of a grocery store.

Besides original menu ideas, caterers can deliver the inside scoop on the good stuff – produce and products that may not have reached the masses. “At Kuhlmann’s Market Gardens, Mrs. K makes the best sauerkraut known to man,” Smoliak says. He is also a fan of Lola Canola Honey in Bon Accord, Greens Eggs and Ham (Leduc suppliers of produce and poultry) and Sparrow’s Nest produce of Edmonton.

Smoliak’s catering advice mirrors Kammerer’s: for a stress-free event, make like a Girl Guide and Be Prepared. “It’s important to be detail-oriented, so that you don’t forget anything,” he says. Full service caterers, such as Smoliak and Kammerer, take care of details you may not have considered: dishes, serving platters, glasses and cutlery, for example, or bar supplies and a bartender to mix and serve drinks.

“I do a lot of the cooking for clients in their homes, as opposed to coming with food already prepared, ready to be reheated,” Smoliak says.
“I like to show up at the house at least an hour and a half before the guests are scheduled to arrive in order to get comfortable with the environment and with any new equipment I will be working with.”

So if organizational skills are essential for any caterer, they’ll come in handy when handling your own function. “When you’re hosting the party, the same is true,” Smoliak says. “Plan ahead. Have a list, assign specific tasks such as setting up the bar, arranging flowers and such.”

“And don’t try to be Martha,” he quickly adds. “Remember, she does this for a living!”  

Plan ahead

• Hire a caterer: Make the call if you’re at risk of not enjoying your own event because you’re too stressed about
preparing and serving all that food, keeping it warm, and cleaning up afterward.

If your event will involve more guests than you have plates, cutlery or serving dishes, or you will require an outdoor tent, additional tables or other extras, a full service caterer will handle it all for you.

• Do it yourself: There are techniques to make self-catering easier. Many foods can be prepared ahead of time and frozen or stored in the fridge. The flavours of most dips and sauces actually improve overnight. Meats such as pork, chicken and beef can be sliced into strips and frozen in marinade for three months, then thawed, threaded onto bamboo skewers and quickly grilled or broiled for satay.

Chef Brad Smoliak suggests chopping and dicing the day before a big event. “I like to blanch my vegetables the day before, and then it’s just a simple reheat.”

• Don’t avoid pre-prepped: Some things can be purchased already made, such as tubs of bruschetta, sliced salami and prosciutto and dried figs from an Italian market, hummus, pita and pistachios from a Mediterranean market, or desserts from a good bakery. Buying ready-made is not an admission of defeat.

Pita chips and crostini can be baked a day in advance and kept in an airtight container. Other breads, such as buns or baguettes, should be purchased the morning of an event.

• Don’t over or under prepare: For a cocktail party,  Chef Nicole Kammerer estimates eight to 10 pieces per person later in the evening; 10 to 15 pieces if guests arrive between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., when they’re hungrier. Smoliak’s estimates are similar; eight to 10 over the dinner hour (between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.), and six to eight items per person before or after.

Make sure you have at least one vegetarian option, a few low-fat choices and one wheat- or dairy-free dish to cover any dietary restrictions. Make sure all but a couple of items can be served cold or at room temperature, to save yourself running back and forth from the oven in an effort to keep things hot.

• Make a toast: It’s not necessary to stock a full bar. Plan for two or three drinks per person, and fill a cooler or tub with ice and bottles of beer, sparkling water and white wine. The red wine can stay on the countertop. If you want to add extras, slice lemons and limes, and mix a batch of sangria, martinis or another cocktail that’s easy to serve.