| the catering outfit |

Friday, April 17, 2015

A Styled Shoot BTS

The Catering Outfit teamed up with a fantastic cast of characters earlier this week to style a unique photoshoot on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. The inspiration for the tablescape was the Mall itself, with the beautiful bricks and the natural beauty of the trees juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of the Mall's many establishments. The team envisioned a City Hall bride feasting with her wedding guests under the stars!

After the shoot wrapped, we made use of the edible props and invited some of our friends for dinner! It was the perfect ending to a creatively fulfilling day.

Stay tuned for more details about the menu we created and photos from Robert Radifera-- but for now, enjoy these behind-the-scenes sneak peeks!

Big thanks to the team involved:

Robert Radifera Photography

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

TCO's Favorite Spring Flavors

Spring brings with it a rush of events-- between menu tastings for fall and winter brides, events for various Charlottesville area organizations and UVA, styled shoots, and, of course, real weddings, The Catering Outfit team is off and running! While we love the hearty tastes of winter menus, spring means a return to light and crisp flavors. Our favorite spring dishes right now are...

Cocktail: Cucumber Mint Pimm's Cup

cucumber, pimm's no. 1, ginger beer, pelligrino limonata, mint leaves

Canapé: Ceviche Spoon

marinated scallops, shrimp, citrus, jalapeno, red onion, siracha sauce, tostada crumble

Dessert: Strawberry Shortcake!

lavender lemon-scented angel food cake with rum-soaked macerated strawberries and a sweetened honduran cream

DELICIOUS! We cannot wait for more dishes like these... Happy Spring!

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Wedding Menu Tasting with Evan & Mollie

Our Sunday night tasting with Shindig bride Mollie Crosby and groom Evan Burch went longer than usual, but was filled with the sounds of forks and laughter as the bride, groom, Meghan, and both sets of parents tried each and every option available to them. We started with the signature cocktails and moved our way down the menu through cocktail hour and the dinner options; our goal was to emulate the experience Mollie & Evan will have on their wedding day!

Serving seven people was a lot of fun and allowed for great conversation about the wedding day and getting to know which other local vendors from the Charlottesville wedding community they were working with. With the bride & groom meeting at UVA, it was great to know that they were coming back to get married in a town so near and dear to all of our hearts (especially with a vendor team chock-full of wahoo grads).

A sneak peek of the menu:

-There will be an extensive cocktail hour featuring a variety of hors d’oeuvres ranging from Southern Virginia ham biscuits & Cholula corn dogs to lamb & apricot keftedes (paying homage to the groom’s Greek heritage!)

-A stationed dinner to include local pork belly with a Georgia peach glaze (the bride is from Georgia), grits, and individual sweet potato casseroles. A bruised kale salad with pomegranate seeds and peaches lightens up the evening and a variety of other stations with different options will be available to the guests.

Evan & Mollie's big day is August 8^th, 2015, at our newest preferred venue, Castle Hill Cider! We'll be working alongside Meghan Streit of Shindig Weddings & Events and photographer Sarah Cramer.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Recent Tastings...

The Catering Outfit kitchen has been busy this winter with delicious tastings for our upcoming weddings! We've been so inspired by the flavors our brides and grooms are requesting-- these menus are going to be delightful for ALL the senses.

A quick behind-the-scenes peek at some dishes we've created:

-rock barn bacon wrapped quail with lentils & isadores kielbasa

-lavender scented spring pea soup with jumbo lump crab
-palette cleansing lemon sorbet in the natural fruit shell

Chesapeake Bay rockfish

summer flavors galore in this Farmer's Market salad station!

chilled watermelon gazpacho poured over lump crab & avocado salad

a summery composed peach salad

We're so excited for our 2015 weddings and thrilled to work with such fantastic event planners, venues, and couples! Follow along with all our adventures on Instagram and Facebook!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Claire & Mitch at Belle Haven

Claire Mitchell & Mitchell Roessing

Belle Haven on the James

June 14, 2014

Claire & Mitch's Belle Haven wedding showcased the beauty of summer! The whole wedding had a beautiful, Southern grace feel to it with the color palette and menu that Claire & Mitch chose. It was a lot of fun and overall a very warm and inviting wedding reception.

The groom designed and hand lettered their entire paper suite!

Menu

cocktail hour:

pork belly blt

sausage stuffed mushrooms

tempura shrimp

ahi tuna poke

arancini

fresh balsamic roasted fig

caprese bites

vol au vent

Moonshine cocktails were a huge part of this wedding reception. The groom, Mitch, is from West Virginia so the moonshine and pork belly sandwiches were a great way to pay homage to his home state.

dinner:

peach & field greens

artisan bread basket

grilled beef tenderloin with potato gratin & fresh grilled asparagus

pan seared monkfish with tomato-mascarpone risotto & shallot-basil relish

parmesan risotto with roasted figs & grilled asparagus

Claire & Mitch were one of our first couples to really dive into the fun and deliciousness that monkfish has to offer, so creating that dish with its complementing side dishes was a lot of fun for Walter and allowed his creativity to be expressed in their menu.

dessert:

pie and cobbler bar - peach crisp, blueberry cobbler & strawberry rhubarb pie

Vendors:

This wedding was published on the Southern Weddings Magazine blog!

Friday, January 30, 2015

5 Tips for Finding Your Caterer

While some vendors like photographers, venue, and planner are often the first on your list of wedding professionals to book, caterers should be near the top of your list-- after all, they're responsible for a huge portion of your wedding day and wedding budget! If you're planning on feeding your guests-- whether with canapes and cocktails or a full sit-down dinner and dessert-- finding the right caterer for your wedding style and your personality is one of the most important parts of your planning to-do list.

But how do you find the caterer of your dreams? A few tips to get you started:

1. Ask around-- or be inspired.

Word of mouth is a common way for brides to connect with caterers, but what if you're planning a destination wedding? A new way brides are finding caterers is through styled shoots and real wedding features in magazines or on blogs! If you see a wedding reception that inspires you, take a peek at the vendor credits at the end of a post or article and take note of who the caterer is.

2. Check with your venue first.

Some venues have a list of approved vendors they require their brides to work with-- before you sit down with a caterer, make sure they're on that list! It's important for vendors and venues to sync up, especially when it comes to finding space and equipment for cooking and prepping food!

3. Consider working with a planner.

The Catering Outfit likes to recommend that all their brides work with a planner, even just a Day of Coordinator-- a planner will relieve much of the "wedding planning stress" and help to smoothly execute a flawless wedding day! A planner will also have a handful of favorite caterers they've worked successfully with and will be able to point you in the right direction when you start your caterer search!

4. It's all about personality.

If you thought finding the right One for you was hard... we promise finding the right caterer won't be as taxing! But working with a caterer who shares the same passion and energy you and your groom share is important too. Some caterers are large operations with several point people for you to work with, while others (like The Catering Outfit) are more intimate teams. The people you work with to plan your menu will be the same ones whipping up your meals on your wedding day!

Kelsey Carter, director of catering for The Catering Outfit, says, "It’s all about personalities! We want to create something beautiful and unique and the couples that come to us with an awesome vision and creative ideas are the ones we truly connect with. We custom design every single menu so it’s awesome when couples or event planners come to us with some whimsical ideas that we get to give life to."

5. Book early!

As soon as you book your venue and wedding planner, focus on your caterer. Caterers are being booked earlier and earlier in the planning process and for good reason: the process of having consultations, menu planning, tastings, and making final tweaks to a menu happens throughout your entire engagement-- getting this key vendor in place early will check off a major part of your planning to-do list!

Happy Planning!

TCO

images by Jen Fariello Photography and Adam Barnes Fine Art Photography

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Claire & Will at Trump Winery

Claire Kettering & Will Menke

The Grand Hall at Trump Winery

October 18, 2014

This was a special event for us. Many were calling it THE wedding of 2014 and it definitely delivered. Claire & Will were such a fun couple to work with, with their out-of-the-box and fantastically foodie thinking. Together, we created a menu that was truly one-of-a-kind and unique.

The outdoor ceremony allowed for guests to be “wowed” by the surprise tent with twinkling lights that was built specifically for them and their reception. Guests were always being fed-- from pre-ceremony appetizers, a tapas bar and passed hors d’oeuvres for cocktail hour and leading into the dinner reception.

The 3 course dinner provided different features on each plate to give guests a different experience with each course and the late night burgers and truffle fries were greatly appreciated by the guests who stayed for the silent disco after party. We also created a late night gentleman’s bar with bourbon, brandy, whiskey, & cigars!

Menu:

Pre-Ceremony

passed hors d’oeuvres

membrillo & drunken goat crostini

albemarle baking company crostini, hot pepper jelly

house smoked rag mountain trout pate

caromont farms onion boursin, "left over summer black berry" jam, albemarle baking company crostini

Cocktail Hour

stationed hors d'oeuvres

wood grill station

grilled rappahannock olde salts

drawn butter

retreat farm lamb lollipops

mint jelly, house preserved lemon harissa

boat bar

rappahannock olde salts on the half shell

cocktail sauce, horseradish, tabasco, lemon, mignonette

tapas

virginia tapas station in carriage house

boquerones, edwards surryano ham, everona piedmont, olli salumeria chorizo, albemarle baking company baguette, selection of artisan cheeses and charcuterie, olives, verdure marinate

passed hors d'oeuvres:

snapping turtle soup

trump cru reduction crème fraiche

ham biscuits

brown sugar butter, harpers country ham

bacon wrapped dates

rock barn hickory bacon

tempura shrimp

spicy sambal mayo, kecap manis, minced chive

devilish eggs

local quail egg, cayenne

arancini

truffled orzo "mac & cheese"

Dinner

plated first course:

bouillabaisse

monkfish, maine lobster, mussels, shrimp, roasted fennel, tomato, saffron potato, lobster fennel jus, grilled albemarle baking company baguette, rouille

plated second course:

surf and turf

sugar cured house smoked patterson's registered berkshire pork belly, potter's craft cider braised swiss chard + seared scallop, "hoppin' john"

family style third course:

free union grass farm duck breast

pan seared, local fig mostarda, carter mountain apple kraut

byrd mill stone ground grits

creamed leeks, mascarpone

root vegetable hash

turnip, rutabaga, baby heirloom carrots, celery root, parsnip