Ths wk Mscrpone ricotta Jarlsberg Pizzas, Bf Tndrloin Gran Mrnier Au Jus, Ptato & Wld Mshrm Gratins more:
http://ping.fm/gG6oR

Chefs @ ktchen prepping 4 wedding 2night & event crew just finished setup @ church. So glad Chef de Cuisine Josh back after knee surgery!

Hectic--big wedding tomorrow. But Exec Chef's handmade mascarpone and handmade creme fraiche for tomorrow turned out excellently

Just returned to ofc from dropping off food donation to Covenant House and buying at farmer's markets

Ths wk Rostd Fish w Smkd Pprka Shrmp Sauce Mhsrms Port Cream Sauce Tmto Concsse w Crme Frche Chves Crustdes more:
www.fandango-catering.com

New from the blog: Helpful Party Planning Sites
http://bit.ly/9OepuP

Fandango Catering and Events: Helpful Party Planning Sites

People who are into DIY mode for their events ask us where to get party planning ideas and tips for DIYers. Well, apart from here on our blog, there are great websites and magazines out there that can provide all kinds of ideas and that in fact inspire us in lots of ways.

As caterers and event planners/designers, we spend long hours weekly on our event planning and design (and we have chefs, pastry chefs, a sommelier, and an event setup team). But to help our readers who don't have any of these event people at their beck and call, we've compiled a list of some of our favorite helpful party planning sites that you can check out and order/be inspired by/learn from when planning your next event.

Below, some of our favorites:

General Party Planning and Event Design Ideas

http://www.victoriamag.com/

http://www.marthastewart.com/

http://www.southernliving.com/

http://www.foodandwine.com/

http://www.belk.com/ (Modern Southern Style ideas, not just for wedding registries)

http://www.fancyflours.com/ (Unique dessert presentation items, including cupcake papers, and event ideas)

http://www.greenfeet.com/ (Sugarcane plates and bowls that can be recycled or composted)

Pairing Wine, Cocktails, and Beer with Food

http://www.foodandwinepairing.org/

http://www.tastings.com/

http://www.wine.com/

http://www.drinksmixer.com/

http://www.webtender.com/

http://www.beeradvocate.com/

http://www.cheesecupid.com/ (Pairs cheeses with wines or beers)

Enjoy!

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.
Director of Sales and Operations/Event Manager
Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
info@fandango-catering.com
http://www.fandango-catering.com/

Neighbor has donated eight years of Fine Cooking mags to us--woo hoo!

Working on this week's meetings and events today

Leaving for Rawfully Organic, then client meeting at 2:3pm today

To compost kitchen scraps and leftover food scraps from events check out Nature's Way Resources:
http://ping.fm/bztsE

Finalizing logistics for next week's large events & sustainable catering RFP going out this afternoon

Green & Black's Ultimate Cookbook in today's F & W Dish e-mail--Fair-Trade Chocolate for cooking

Ths wk Bf Tndrln w Sweet & Sour Cipolline Wrm Caprese Salad Manchego Bites Wrapped in Jamon Serrano more:
http://ping.fm/zw39p

New from the blog: Late Winter Event Decor Tips:
http://bit.ly/9OepuP

Fandango Catering and Events Offers Late Winter Event Decor Tips

Late winter events provide great opportunities for decor that looks to spring's warmer days while still considering the last days of winter.

While it's still too early for a totally springlike decor at an event, a mix of late winter and early spring feels just right and brightens everyone's mood. Below, ideas for creating that "just right" feel at winter events.

Mix a dark color with a bright or a pastel--But tend a little more towards the bright or pastel colors. For example: A sky-blue tablecloth with red or red and white plates or with white plates with a green border. Or two strong colors (not Astrobrights or very dark) such as turquoise with deep red-pink flowers for a centerpiece and white plates, or blue plates on a deep yellow cloth with blue flowers for the centerpiece, either in a big vase or as one or two flowered stems each in wineglasses lined up along the center of the table. Or those Mexican green glass goblets with light green or blue clear glass plates on a dark green cloth.

If your home is dark or has dark walls lighten it up with light-colored flowers--Especially with masses of white or yellow flowers in large light or clear glass or even silver vases. To make this really outstanding, in back of the flowers stick a bunch of greenery, gathered or bought. Or just stick greenery in big vases, placed around the room on tables and the mantel.

If your home has white or cream walls use color--For example, vases or bowls or yellow or pink-red flowers placed around the room in colored or dark or silver vases. The repetition of the flowers around the room is what makes this beautiful. Or use masses of greenery only, without flowers, in colored or dark or silver vases. Either way, the colored flowers and the colored or dark or silver vases or bowls are what stand out against white walls. We did an event a few years ago in an all-white, modern space and no one noticed the clear glass vases of red-orange tulips the client had set out because the clear glass disappeared in that white room.

Hurricane lamps give a soft glow and hint at warmer weather--These look wonderful lit on tables or a sideboard inside, and are a nice change from votives.

With just a bit of thought, your late-winter event can cheer everyone's mood and say "Spring is right around the corner!"

Warmly,

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.

Director of Sales and Operations/Event Manager

Fandango Catering and Events

(713) 522-0077

info@fandango-catering.com

http://www.fandango-catering.com

New event helpers; corporate RFP for tomorrow

Just finished meetings on event designs for upcoming events w/Exec Chef, Event Manager, bartenders (and conference calls w clients)

Working today in the office to catch up

Just fnshed long day of mtngs & following a friend's call swung by the Clayton & picked up stacks of food & design mags on their sale table

About to start a day of meetings

Fandango Catering and Events: Why More Caterers are Moving Toward Local Food

In our previous blog post we mentioned that we belong to the Association of Catering Professionals. In this group's e-forum we were pleased to find that many members say they either use local/more eco-conscious food or are moving in that direction.

We believe this is a good thing for those who use our services because:

• It's healthier
• It produces vastly superior food
• It's better for the Planet
• It supports local business

Why do some caterers (perhaps, still, the majority) not want to use local/eco-conscious food?

Those caterers who continue to use the big supplier system do it for one reason only: it's convenient and allows them to book as many events per day as possible. How? Let's look inside the big supplier system and how it relates to caterers.

When a caterer uses big suppliers exclusively, all it has to do is to call, fax, or order online and the food is delivered to their door (or rather to their loading zone), usually weekly or more often for a high-volume outfit. What's wrong with that? To begin with, generally the food from the big suppliers is shipped from far away and is often loaded with pesticides or hormones or preservatives. If a caterer receives the shipments weekly, the events further away from the delivery day get food that's less fresh. The other part of the big supplier system is the caterer's too-frequent reliance on partially-made ("par made" in industry lingo) or even wholly-prepared food so as to be able to do as many events as possible quickly (and thus take more bookings).

Here's are examples: the dressing for the salads is bought and the produce for the salad, because it's grown for shipment not flavor, and is grown with pesticides, is often light-colored and flavorless (plus at least somewhat toxic). The demiglace (stock reduction to flavor sauces) or stock or even the sauce for the beef or chicken and the rolls are bought. The dessert is bought either wholly or partially made; for instance, a cake baked for an event is frosted with frosting bought from the supplier (which contains trans fats).

Do you see how this can help a caterer interested in quick sales rather than food or people churn out events rapidly?

There's a reason why people who eat in places like Paris or, post Alice Waters, anywhere else the food is made fresh from fresh, local ingredients acclaim the food as something totally different from what they've ever had (and the reason French classical cuisine is the basis of U.S. culinary schools).

As more and more caterers realize that with really fresh and toxic-free ingredients stellar results are possible, and more and more potential clients realize the benefits of fresh, local food (demonstrated here in the U.S. by the crowds always shopping at Whole Foods), the market-to-table and toxic-free protein small local vendors will develop and become more mainstream, we predict. And that's a good thing for catering clients and their events (and the Planet).

Bon Appetit!

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.

Director of Sales and Operations/Event Manager

Fandango Catering and Events

(713) 522-0077

info@fandango-catering.com

http://www.fandango-catering.com/

New bartender, more chefs from LeNotre, and end of long day started at 5am this morning

Two RFPs just out and Chef had to stay longer with client today because of her oven issues, time to get back to the ofc Chef!

Working on another RFP for sustainable catering

Chefs "don't create from recipes.They create from taste..[as] a composer hears notes..in the mind before anyone plays them"--Elmnts of Taste

Exec Chef returning from client's by 1pm today

New from the blog: How Caterers Choose Their Menus (Part I):
http://bit.ly/9OepuP

Fandango Catering and Events: How Caterers Choose Their Menus (Part I)

We belong to a group called Association of Catering Professionals, some of whose members in its forum last week discussed how they choose menu items or, as chefs prefer to call them, recipes.
This is very timely for us as we just launched our 2011 menus, and today I'm going to give readers an inside look at how caterers choose their menus (or recipes).
This is not as simple as it seems and provides a lot of inside info that most people (except caterers) don't know, or...



Why Grandmother Aurora Isn't Really Our Culinary Muse


Via the Association of Catering Professionals e-discussion, we were astonished to learn that a surprising number of caterers use only, or mostly, their family recipes. We don't have any old family recipes that we could serve to our discriminating clientele. I've written about my grandmother, Aurora Padilla, here in the blog before. She was born in Valencia, Spain, orphaned, and at 14 married my grandfather Benito Ríos (a Polish Jewish escapee from the tsar's army who was granted asylum in Spain and whose real name was Wladislaw Benjamin Rostok), then when my father was two they emigrated to Mexico and later to Texas. By all accounts she was an excellent cook, masterful at both Spanish and Mexican cooking. But our clients expect more than that kind of food, and we give it to them.

This brings me to how caterers choose menu items. The breakdown is roughly as follows:

• Family recipes (not us)
• What other caterers are doing (not us)
• What other caterers have done in the past (not us)
• Cookbooks, food magazines, the Web, and food shows (us, with tweaks and improvements)
• Chefs' original ideas (us, with tweaks and improvements)

We believe that our clients and prospective clients should help guide our menu selections, not so much the other way around. That's why we no longer e-mail even our few fixed menus of last year (we have always had custom menus) to prospective clients, instead choosing and sending from huge binders, updated annually and on a rolling basis, of suggested items by category (for example, American Bistro/dinner, Spanish, hors d'oeuvres). Our clients know and appreciate this. After all, this is the age of customization, personalization, and niches.

And true chefs--that is, true culinary artists--get bored preparing the same food all the time, which is why truly talented chefs rarely go into catering unless they own the business and/or have full artistic license (and why talented chefs change restaurants constantly).


For our 2011 menus we just finished combing through over THREE HUNDRED cookbooks and food magazines, plus about 50 pages of notes for recipe ideas. We also added, because we've had inquiries, Intermezzo (palate cleansing, generally sorbet) and cheese course options as well as dessert trios (NOT quads, which are hard to plate and require those square plates I despise). Obviously these aren't for everyone. But isn't it good to know they're available, just like a great wide selection of hors d'oeuvres for the young professional's or business cocktail party is there too?



The point is that we believe caterers should be responsive to their clients and potential clients and be less concerned with what's easy and cheap for them (like buying partially-made food from big suppliers). So we also have selected this year menu items that are not trendy for trendy's sake. In fact, retro elegance is "in"--or maybe it's always been there and now a majority of people, from twenties to boomers to mature folks, all full of life, find it makes them happy at an event in ways that bento boxes and triangular risers (or square plates) didn't.
Next time: Why more caterers are moving toward buying local (and why that's a good thing)



Warmly,
Kristina
Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.
Director of Sales and Operations/Event Manager
Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
info@fandango-catering.com
http://www.fandango-catering.com/

We added Chse Course 2 r options, recommend Janet Fletcher, The Chse Course; Fiona Beckett, Chse Course Styles, Win Pairing, Plates, Recipes

Now on our website: Sample Menus page w click to view sample Dinner, Hors d'oeuvres, and Sandwich menus:
http://ping.fm/EOQxE

New on the website: Sample Menus page with Dinner, Hors d'oeuvres sample menu PDFs:
http://ping.fm/HrarK

Fandango Catering and Events Offers Tips for Choosing an Event Menu

In our continuing blog series, "Event Guide 101," today we offer 7 tips on choosing a menu for your event.

The menu is one of the key components of an event, but choosing a menu doesn't have to be difficult. Here are some easy tips.

Balance is key--By balance we mean the right balance of items as a combination in your menu. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take the items you're considering for your menu and list them (write, type, or whatever is easiest for you). If you're using a caterer you can highlight the menu items you like or if you're doing your own food gather the recipes. Why list them? Because this is the way you can see if what you thought was a good menu looks right--so you can see the trees and not just the forest, so to speak. Believe us, keeping this in your head doesn't work because you won't catch if you have an overall balance.
Now check: do you have a mix of salty, sweet, creamy, spicy? Are any ingredients repeated too often? We recently heard of a crostini bar, but we find this too boring and more convenient for the caterer than pleasing to the guests.

Always offer at least one vegetarian option--To make things easy on you, you can include it as one of the options for everyone if serving hors d'ouevres or take their plated vegetarian food to your veg guests at a seated event.

Return to your listed menu: Is everything the same color? Is all the food the same color or do you have a mix of dark and light? If you now see that everyhing will be the same color either substitute other foods to add color or have your caterer do garnishes to add color or add garnishes yourself. Simple garnishes are: sprigs of fresh dill (not parsley, too dated) for trays or plates or tiny fruits such as sprigs of seedless grapes or kumquats or tiny apples for trays.

Ask your caterer what they think of your menu--A good caterer will give you guidance and suggestions to help you easily and pleasantly arrive at the best menu for your event. Many also customize menus.

If your event is a potluck ask guests to bring food from specific categories--Or you'll end up with three potato salads or some other snafu.

If someone else is doing the cooking make sure they know about any food allergies--You don't want any of your guests with food allergies to have a reaction.

Please consider buying your event food locally, seasonally, and/or organically--This is easy to do nowadays: go to a farmer's market, restaurant produce outlet, or coop; many supermarkets now offer these kinds of foods; or go to Whole Foods. If you use a caterer, ask them if they can use local, seasonal, or organic food.

Finally, it's better to do a few hors d'oeuvres or courses really well than to serve many things that are mediocre.

Warmly,

Kristina

Kristina Ríos de Lumbreras, Ph.D.
Director of Sales and Operations/Event Manager
Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
info@fandango-catering.com
http://www.fandango-catering.com

New photos on the website (Services, Blog):
http://ping.fm/LKflQ

Tasting 2morrow xld due 2 weather, working on wedding--menu incl Bf Tenderloin w Pancetta & Sweet Sour Onions, Fontina Mascarpone Quichettes

Intermezzos incl. Champagne, Lime-Vodka, added to 2011 Dinner Menu

Power low @ client's this morning! Client says to end early so everyone gets home safely

So glad that sustainable catering and sustainable event practices, even for large events, are becoming more popular across the board

Exec Chef on site with a client in the Heights until 1pm today