Catering * WS 2000

One of the most important elements of your wedding and surely one of your guests will remember, is the food. The styles and abundance of foods offered at the reception and cocktail hour are affected by even small regional differences.

Abigail Kirsch, one of Manhattan and Tarreytown’s leading caterers, is seeing more conservative brides choosing elegant, classic understated weddings. However, Holly Safford of A Catered Affair, one of the outstanding caterers of Boston and Cape Cod, is noticing brides planning the party of their dreams as never before. "They are not thinking about costs," Safford noted. "They are pulling out all the stops. How many occasions are as important as a wedding? Young people are comfortable in the role of host and hostess."

Safford noted that she doesn’t do too much at cocktails. "We use lighter things to start the event. I don’t want to upstage the entrée. Cocktails should be an important, but not lingering memory." Kirsch views the cocktail hour differently. "People are really hungry at this time. They’ve been traveling to the church, to the reception. While I don’t believe in serving dinner before dinner, I don’t recommend cutting back on the quantity or variety of the hors d’oeuvres."

While carving stations are no longer popular, butlered service is. Sushi is the popular choice. "Young people go for sushi the most," Kirsch noted. "More people are going for authentic ethnic foods." She offers Moroccan and Thai stations in addition to Southwest and New York deli stations. Safford offers Chinese and Vietnamese hors d’oeuvres. "Southwest stations allow a variety of vegetarian choices," Kirsch said. "The cocktail hour, when guests choose what they eat, is best for offering unusual foods and different tastes. Plated service should be more traditional."

Raw bars, flowing champagne and tins of good caviar are popular in New England. Although Kirsch has noticed people initially asking for these items, many change their minds after making their other choices. "Caviar in tins and a seafood bar of shrimp, clams and oysters, and especially lobsters can raise the cost of the reception immensely," she noted. She may use caviar as a garnish or in caviar blini instead. Safford recommends using ossettra caviar in place of beluga for both taste and value.

Both caterers insure each guest is served appropriate food they will enjoy. "Even when the bride tells me not to bother, I plan a vegetarian substitute for 10 percent of the guests," Safford said. "I try to provide them with something that looks very similar to what the other guests are enjoying. From mid-April through mid-October, lobster salad in a cold presentation is the most popular first course. In New England, brides want lobster as unembellished as possible. For my substitution, I use a shell of tomato instead of the lobster. It’s important to make vegetarian guests feel cared about."

Kirsch strongly reiterated that sentiment. "I always have a vegetarian dish ready to go and fish available, even though two choices may have already been offered. My wait staff notice if someone is not eating and they offer a substitution such as an exotic fruit plate. If kitchen facilities are available, we will even whip up an omelet. The one thing we never say is ‘no.’

Formal dinners feature two table wines and possibly a dessert wine. In moving from the appetizer to the entrée, both Kirsch and Safford like to move from white wine to red wine. "We offer no lobster as entrée," noted Safford, "because it puzzles guests to go from one white wine to another white wine. People enjoy a good red wine."

Both caterers see a renewed popularity for beef. "It is appreciated by a wide range of guests," Safford noted. "In other parts of the country, beef is the ultimate treat." Rack of lamb or lamb loin is popular year-round. "Rack of lamb has never not been a popular choice in New York," Kirsch said. "You either love it or you don’t."

Neither caterer likes multiple entrées served on the same plate. "Multiple loins can be done for a small number of guests," Safford noted, "but it makes a busy plate. It’s more like a groaning board. People don’t feel fed, they feel assaulted. Particularly when there are three loins, it’s too much protein. Everything suffers rather than being enhanced." Kirsch, known for her exquisite food presentations, added that multiple entrées were unnecessary and inelegant. Safford also doesn’t like combinations of beef and seafood. "Neither come off well that way," she observed. "It’s possible to have chicken and salmon together, but people are getting bored with salmon entrées."

While home parties represent a logistical challenge–Kirsch uses a four-page check list that includes parking, water, electricity for everything including the coffee pot, cook tents and even septic system pumping–both caterers love home weddings. "House parties will never die," Kirsch observed. "However, a rain plan is essential. Two of my four children were married in tents." Safford noted that tents provide more than a rain plan, offering sun protection and defining the space of the party by enclosing everyone together. Kirsch warned, however, that if there isn’t a large enough stretch of flat land available to put everyone in the same tent, then a broken party results. Those seated away from the bride and groom and the dance floor will be unhappy. Broken parties can result within a home as well. If two separated rooms have to be used for dinner, those guests seated away from the bride and groom feel left out. Safford asks the newlyweds to move on to the second room for their dessert course.

Kirsch is finding the bride who has already been to several of her friends’ weddings the most likely to choose a loose flowing party, her own personal favorite. "Younger brides like a seated service. Flowing parties may use cafe seating and multiple rooms. Everyone switches tables all night. However, brides need to realize everyone won’t see the cake cut or the first dance or any other special event. You aren’t going to make announcements calling everyone into one room each time."

Safford’s younger brides are choosing informal receptions featuring food stations over plated service. "Tastes change, levels of sophistication change. Older couples are more comfortable with lavish affairs that they pay for themselves. Of course some sites just don’t lend themselves to plated service of multi-course meals."

While Safford is seeing more big, festive receptions for second and third marriages, Kirsch is not. "Either the bride or groom has to be marrying for the first time," she noted. "Otherwise, they keep it low key. They may not even walk down the aisle. Sometimes their only attendants are their children."

Abigail Kirsch is the exclusive caterer for her mansion, Tappan Hills in Tarreytown, New York, as well as the New York Botanical Gardens. She has recently added Pier 60 and Pier 61, the Lighthouse. Last year, A Catered Affair opened a separate kosher catering service called Provendar, Ltd., based in Rockland, Massachusetts.

"The best advice I can give brides in selecting their menu is to serve what you really enjoy eating," Kirsch said. "Don’t worry about what Aunt Mary or Uncle Joe will eat. Sit down, talk to your fiancé and parents and serve what you really love."