Call In The Caterers

By Beth Anne Piehl

Of  course the wedding day is all about the bride and groom, but the menu plays a pretty “significant other” to the success of the event.
Finding a caterer to suit the tastes of those invited can enhance the celebration, whether it’s heavy appetizers, a buffet or elegant plated meal.
“I’m a certified executive chef, and basically whatever a customer has seen and whatever their dream is, we can pull it off,” said Bob Vala, owner of the Crow’s Nest restaurant north of Harbor Springs.
He offered an example of a recent wedding for 300 that called for a mix of Michigan and Lebanese dishes to reflect the backgrounds of the bride and groom. Guests dined on baba ghanoush, pastries known as fatayar and grilled whitefish.
“Most of the people who come up here for events are looking for that Northern Michigan flair,” Vala said.
Often that means dried cherries and morel mushrooms are found in his recipes. “And our pan-fried perch is to die for,” he added. “We use a lot of local produce. We’re doing another party and serving heirloom-tomato Napoleon, with tomatoes from Bill’s Farm Market.”
The classic stacked dessert pastry used layers of tomatoes and goat cheese with balsamic vinegar, a unique take on the traditional sweet.
Specialized stations serving pasta or fresh perch or beef are other hallmarks of the upscale approach taken by Crow’s Nest staff.
“We’re a full-service catering company,” Vala said. “We offer everything from the bartenders to the waitstaff, chefs and cooking stations.”
For more information about the menu choices, visit www.crowsnest-harborsprings.com. Vala suggests six months advanced notice for weddings. 

An elegant flair

Darren Romano, chef and owner of Grey Gables in Charlevoix, enjoys handling events from small intimate, seven-course meals to large affairs with 350 guests celebrating a joyous wedding day.
As a preferred caterer at the Castle Farms venue in Charlevoix, Grey Gables can create plated entrees to buffets depending on the tastes of the bride and groom.
“A lot of things we do off-premise we keep different from the restaurant,” Romano said. “It’s a different style.”
Pasta stations are a popular option with couples today, and other dishes getting rave reviews from his clients include broccoli and yogurt salad, smoked turkey breast with cherry chutney and salad nicoise with tomatoes, olives and grilled artichokes rather than the typical poached tuna.
He has coined the term “private buffet” in referring to serving “family style” meals tabletop – large bowls of food that help guests engage each other in conversation while satiating their hunger.
“We don’t serve typical wedding food,” Romano said. “We serve restaurant-style cuisine off-premise to your guests.”
Grey Gables also offers full-service catering including hotel-style serving equipment, waitstaff, bartending abilities (with a license for off-site beer and wine service) and more. Romano’s wife also makes custom-cakes for catering customers. “We can supply everything,” Romano added.

Hors d’oeuvres, anyone?

At Feast Market and Café in downtown Petoskey, diners can find unique combinations of traditional menu choices that set the restaurant apart from its peers. And guests at weddings and events catered by Feast staff have the same experience.
“We do like to offer some alternatives,” said chef and owner Scott Schornak. “We really specialize in hors d’oeuvres and I would say we specialize in some of the parties surrounding weddings and nontraditional weddings.”
Feast has been catering a number of bridal parties prior to the wedding ceremony, for instance, providing food trays for when the ladies are preparing for the big event. Brunch platters for the day after the ceremony are another popular option.
One of Schornak’s favored approaches to more informal settings is “the idea of a skewer party. This is not your RSVP chicken or fish or beef. This is if you want to have a different party and you want to go heavy hors d’oeuvres and not so formal. We can put your whole meal on sticks.”
Skewer combinations can include salads, meats, vegetables and desserts.
Most of the appetizers and meals he creates are spin-offs of the tasty and interesting combinations he uses for salads and sandwiches at Feast, such as a curry chicken wrap or roast beef sandwich with bleu cheese and sweet onion jam. He even creates custom ice cream flavors like chocolate chipotle, lavender and strawberry basil.
He brought his years of cooking experience and time spent as chef and manager at The Fish in Harbor Springs when he opened Feast, where he enjoys creating combinations that will leave an impression.
Examples include sesame hoisin barbecue sweet-potato satays (a southeast Asian interpretation of a kabob), Jamaican jerk chicken, Latin-inspired salad, tiny tostadas, mini dessert bites and small-sized chicken gyros.
 “I really love to get into hors d’oeuvres,” said Schornak, who added he uses plenty of garlic, spices and herbs in his cooking. “I like to take any dish and miniaturize it. I try to bring something different.”

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