advice on a cocktail party menu

[Wildflour Chef]

Hi everyone,

I actually am not a caterer, I am a personal chef but I am donating my services by doing some finger foods for a cocktail party fundraiser because it will be great exposure for me. I was wondering if I could get take advantage of your expertise and see what you all thought of my plans for this event so far.

The event is from 6-9pm in a upscale building in an upscale, yuppie-ish part of town. They are expecting 300-400 guests, and they have asked several different chefs/restaurants/food shops to provide food for 50-100 people. I am going for the 50 people mark.

The other food providers booked so far include a few very high-profile, upscale restaurants and bakeries, so I have so very stiff competition and am feeling a lot of pressure to measure up. I am planning on having 2 dessert offerings and 3 or 4 savory things. Being that there will be lots of other food to sample, I am thinking that I'll be ok with about 100-150 of each item. Does that sound like enough for a 3 hour party to supply 50 people?

Here is the list of my options so far. Keep in mind that it all has to be served room temperature.

-Shrimp and Mango skewers with chilli lime glaze
-skewers with marinated mozarella balls, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, drizzled with balsamic
-fresh figs cut into florets and filled with herbed goat cheese and honey
-mini sandwich buns filled with thinly sliced pork and chutney, or some other fun filling
-mini corn cakes topped with shredded pork, tomatillo salsa and lime sour cream

(dessert)
mini chocolate truffle cakes
mini mango galettes
banana bread rounds with a dollop of orange cream

I obviously need to weed this down to 3 or 4 savories and 2 desserts. Your help would be greatly appreciated--I hope I'm not in over my head! Thanks!

[shroomgirl]

-Shrimp and Mango skewers with chilli lime glaze
-skewers with marinated mozarella balls, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, drizzled with balsamic
-fresh figs cut into florets and filled with herbed goat cheese and honey
-mini sandwich buns filled with thinly sliced pork and chutney, or some other fun filling
-mini corn cakes topped with shredded pork, tomatillo salsa and lime sour cream

(dessert)
mini chocolate truffle cakes
mini mango galettes
banana bread rounds with a dollop of orange cream


What are you looking for from this? New personal chef gigs or catering jobs?
Are you footing the food bill or do you have a budget from the hosts?
How many other caterers are there? Do you have equipment to keep things at the right temp? Think simple, good looking and cheap if you're footing the bill. Also consider the risks to guests if you're not keeping things at the right temp. Who will help you? Are you dropping off or are you staying to refill the platters? Are you renting trays/chafers?

Unless you're into baked goods don't even go there. Let the bakeries deal with it.
Ask what the set-up is, do you get a table (what size?) or setup a station....
If you want to meet and greet make sure you're not scooping and garnishing all night long.
What represents what you want to do?
Normally just a couple of things are necessary. think non-messy finger food.
If you're work is stationary have a gorgeous display with your business cards and info about your services. If it's passed don't worry about it at all, noone will know who made it anyway.

[Wildflour Chef]

thanks-that gives me a lot to think about. I will have a stationary display, so I'll be able to set up all of my brochures and materials, as well as my food. I'll be there with it meeting and greeting the whole time, so I am hoping that I'll get personal chef jobs out of it, but I'll take just about anything right now.

I will be set up in a kitchen display (in the showroom of a kitchen design company) so I'll have an island countertop as well as countertop along the wall behind me for displaying food and materials. And, yes, I am paying for the food, so obviously cheaper is better, but I still want to have an impressive enough display because my food will be clearly marked as mine, and all in one area together.

[shroomgirl]

One good inexspensive station is wild mushroom duxelle. Rent, buy or borrow a couple of 4 qt chafers. Make duxelle with shrooms, cream and wild dry shrooms.....bake off a bunch of crostini and have them in a basket.
Pretty display with flowers. Good to hire a staff person to man it so you can talk without a line building.

People aren't going to get a sense of what you do when personal cheffing with this event.....they'll taste your food but your talking is going to sell them on you/your services.

Mediterranean spread can be inexspensive, attractive and not labor intensive....hummos, baba ganoush, tapenade, tziyki, olives, feta, pitas,
pestos, tomato goo.....all fine at room temp for 3 hours......use lemons/pomagranites/leaves etc for decoration.

Or Italian.....grissini, mozz balls, sundried tomatoes, olives, pesto, crostini, caponata, chevre......veg.....asp wrapped in proscuitto or melon....

it's good to find out what the other caterers/bakeries/restaurants are making. .

[ccaldes]

Shrimp and Mango skewers with chilli lime glaze
-skewers with marinated mozarella balls, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, drizzled with balsamic
-fresh figs cut into florets and filled with herbed goat cheese and honey
-mini sandwich buns filled with thinly sliced pork and chutney, or some other fun filling
-mini corn cakes topped with shredded pork, tomatillo salsa and lime sour cream

(dessert)
mini chocolate truffle cakes
mini mango galettes
banana bread rounds with a dollop of orange cream

On the apps, maybe choose items that are a bit more regionally specific and complement each other...such as wrapping individual shrimp in pancetta and filling the figs with gorgonzola dolce instead of goat cheese for an Italian theme.

Also, since you are doing only two heavier dishes, how about a different protein, such as mini-steak sandwiches instead of pork? Flank steak is good, if cooked rare and sliced thinly enough - maybe on crusty bread with olive oil, salt and arugula?

Nice and varied selection on the desserts. Good luck!

[cjdacook]

I used to do these tastings quite often and I found the best thing to do was offer two or three (at the most) food items. And make sure they are products you could make and offer in your sleep - in other words really know your recipes and methods.

Then you can talk about ingredients and methods and your personal chef business while offering your tastings.

Keep it simple and elegant, and keep the name of your dish simple also. One thing that I used to do that really went over big was have copies of your recipe (that you're tasting) in your display. I found folks like the giveaways.

Good luck.

[Wildflour Chef]

Thanks, cjdacook. That is good advice. I am thinking that 2 or 3 is a good idea too. Do you have any recipes that really worked for you in the past at similar events?