Handheld Catering / Posts tagged "party planning"

Prepping for your New Year’s Catering Event

Handheld Catering Staff 29.12.2015 Event Catering, Event Hosting Tips 0
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Bay Area Caterer Shares Its Best Ideas With You! 2016 fast approaches. If you’re planning a big shindig at your beachside home or brainstorming a massive party for your start up, it’s past time to start thinking about your New Year's event catering needs. Below are some tips to help you plan your menu. 1. Present food in a new and exciting way. It’s 2016; we’re well into the second decade of the 21st century. That means old and clunky and predictable won’t cut it. Wow your guests by presenting your dishes in a unique and memorable manner. For example, serve salad in a non-traditional dish, such as a mason jar. Or get modern and crazy – and capitalize on the green energy themes of the moment – and serve drinks with LED ice cubes. Talk to a Silicon Valley catering company for more ideas. 2. Don't serve boring, “blah” dishes that look like the distilled essence of winter – gray and withered. When planning your New Year's menu, surprise and delight with new twists on shrimp scampi or orange chicken or a 32-ingredient salad. Aim for bright colors and a festive array of flavors. 3. Set up a themed food bar. Those who follow corporate catering trends...

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Show your employees you care this holiday season

Unique Catered Company Holiday Party Ideas

Handheld Catering Staff 09.12.2015 Event Catering, Event Hosting Tips, Handheld Catering Events 0
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Create an Event that your Employees will Remember for Years to Come [caption id="attachment_22180" align="alignleft" width="300"] Pink peppercorn crusted Halibut topped with a mango micro green salad over a coconut sticky rice cake, saffron cream sauce, & chive oil[/caption] [caption id="attachment_22181" align="alignright" width="300"] Pan-seared prime ribeye over a Kobacha squash puree, seasonal butter braised vegetables, roasted heirloom potatoes, Buerre Blanc sauce, & balsamic reduction[/caption] [caption id="attachment_22198" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sous Vide farm fresh asparagus & egg yolk with black truffles & a micro green salad with fried leeks[/caption]   Hosting a company holiday party with the help of a Bay Area corporate catering company shows your staff how much you appreciate them. Here are three powerful and underutilized ideas to make your party memorable and fun, inspire better performance and get 2016 off to a winning start.  1. Set up a fun gift exchange. Get all of your employees involved in the festivities. Structure it like a Secret Santa, or make things even more interesting with a Yankee Swap/White Elephant exchange. Appoint one person to do the hard, unforgiving work of collecting everyone’s gift choices via email and pairing people off. Cater the gift exchange with Secret Santa themed noshes, like reindeer shaped cookies or peppermint chocolates. 2. Choose...

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Bay Area Catering Tips for a Successful Summer Party

Handheld Catering Staff 30.06.2015 Event Catering, Event Hosting Tips 0
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Picture this: Refreshing winds dance in the warm summer sky, creating the perfect ambiance for your special event. Guests arrive and are instantly greeted by a bountiful spread of local, colorful cuisine and summer food favorites. You look around and notice plates piled high, and satisfied looks on faces as guests engage in rich conversation. At the end of the event, compliments flood your way, and the scarce pickings of leftover food reveal the popularity of the night's menu....

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Catering Saratoga

The Do’s and Don’ts of Catering

Handheld Catering Staff 19.02.2015 Event Catering, Event Hosting Tips 0
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Event Catering 101 Event catering requires a delicate balance. Cost, décor, food, and support must all work together to ensure seamless execution. Getting the details right is often the deciding factor between success and failure. Do: Talk to your corporate catering team about numbers. Gauging the right numbers ensures guests will receive appropriate, considerate service. Avoid over-estimating; doing so can drain your budget and prevent you from using that money on other catering elements. Create a thoughtful menu. Your food should match the tone of the event and the time of day. Include a variety of options for vegetarians, paleo dieters, low carb/diabetic dieters and those with food allergies. Consider your caterer’s time frame. Venues often require booking in advance of a party for the set up. Always ask your caterer for a timeframe and respect his or her needs for the best results. Don’t: Surprise your caterer. Even the best catering company will have difficulty accommodating last minute changes, particularly if they require extra time or are complex to execute. Think about how complicated a change will be before making a request. Send out all the food...

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event catering Bay Area

How to Throw a Winning Super Bowl Party

Handheld Catering Staff 22.01.2015 Event Catering, Event Hosting Tips 0
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Bay Area Event Catering The internet is filled with great ideas for throwing a memorable Super Bowl party. Foods like cheesy dips, finger foods, and unique drinks can steal the show, but a winning party should also include fantastic décor and great company. Consider these event catering tips to make the best of your Super Bowl extravaganza. Team accent coloring. Whether you’re praying for a Seattle repeat or hoping Tom Brady and Bill Belichick take home their first Lombardi trophy in more than a decade, support your favorite team with linens, t-shirts, and other decorations in their colors. Try making ice cubes with water colored with food dye so your guests can fix a drink that shows off their team’s colors. Offer a signature cocktail. The best catering companies often create signature drinks at events. For instance, if you’re rooting for Seattle, you might create a cocktail based on local northwest microbrews or even coffee. If you’re pulling for New England, stock your fridge with Sam Adams lager or create a cocktail based on Irish whiskey. Use festive straws and unique -- but easy to clean glasses! -- and you’re on your way to a great...

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event catering sunnyvale

Party Planning Tips

Handheld Catering Staff 18.06.2014 Event Hosting Tips 0
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Tips From Your Bay Area Event Caters Whether you're planning a killer 4th of July barbecue or exploring Bay Area party catering for a wedding or important corporate event, you may have ideas about how to make the event great. But you're also a little frazzled and overwhelmed by the scope of the project.   How can you plan effectively, stay on budget, avoid ruffling feathers and avoid scrambling at the last minute to change accommodations, manage challenging orders, and so on?   Send out announcements early. Send out save the dates and invitations. You can do so on online, if you're hosting a casual event. Giving your guests a “heads up” is a courtesy, and it will earn you more “RSVPs” and help friends and associates plan around their busy lives.   Create buffers in your planning. Expect that some people will cancel or change their plans at the last minute. Expect that you will have menu additions and subtractions. Inexperienced party planners often don’t have enough "give" in their schedules to accommodate for such changes, and so they wind up frustrated and caught off-guard when they happen.   Separate the “nice to haves” from the “must haves.” In an ideal world, you'd like your party to be an unlimited luxurious...

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