I was in charge of planning the holiday party for my company, a large firm in Cincinnati. Our event was held at Newport Aquarium and we chose Chef's Choice as the caterer. I could not have been more pleased with our decision to work with Chef's Choice.
We were very impressed by Chef's Choice from the time we went to sample our proposed menu items about a month before the event. We tasted about 15+ different items and literally LOVED all but one of them (did not care for the beef wellington). The chef was very accomodating, and encouraged us to make suggestions as to adding/subtracting spices, seasonings, sauces, etc. They even helped make some suggestions as to how we could make small changes to our initial menu in order to get "more bang for our buck."
As this was my first time coordinating an event of this scale (a formal event for over 200 guests), I needed a lot of "hand holding" when it came to making various decisions. Kristie McGraw was so wonderful in giving me advice and leveraging some of the things she had seen at other corporate events she had catered.
In terms of the event itself, it went perfectly. The staff were friendlier than we could have even asked. Several of my colleagues even commented on how nice the staff was, The presentation of the food was great, and the wait staff was very quick to clear empty plates and silverware. And of course, the food tasted great. Some of the favorites included the veggie quesadillas, pork wontons, cheese cubes (oddly enough), marinated asparagus, shrimp cocktail, and crab cakes. Although the food did start to get a little cold at times, I think this is absolutey to be expected when using chaffing dishes.
Kristie and her team were on top of every detail the night of our event. When I arrived, I noticed that some of the linens had fold lines in them. When I mentioned this to Kristie, she personally found a steamer and made sure the linens looked perfect by the time our guests arrived. This showed me she was willing to do anything to make sure we were completely satisfied.
I would highly recommend Chef's Choice and Kristie McGraw without hesitation. We will definitely be using them in the future. read more