Passed Hors d'oeuvres

A few blog posts ago, I talked about a different kind of communication: food. The type of food- and how it's served- conveys a lot about how you feel towards your guests. This also varies with different types of events.

For example, a buffet-style fare is perfect for a family party or informal gathering. However, for a wedding reception or a business gathering, it may not be the best choice for the style you're going with. Perhaps you want to make each guest feel valued, special, and appreciated. Well, how about having your food served as passed Hors d'oeuvres?

Think outside of the box

In Utah, the buffet-style fare is very common, and it is effective. However, serving passed Hors d'oeuvres adds an entertainment factor for the guests, as well as stylistically making it more fun. Guests get to pick and choose which appetizers please their palate without ever leaving the conversation.

Savory recently catered a pre-opening party for Microsoft's new store in the City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City. We served the guests seven different Hors d'oeuvres in addition to a gelato station. This style worked because it was a high class event and Microsoft wanted to treat their customers right.

We prepared the food in a separate area and passed around beautiful trays full of delicious appetizers

Beef Crostini with sage cream, caramelized onions, and a fried spinach leaf

Individual mini fruit tarts with real French pastry cream. We also decorated the trays with small flowers.

Southwestern Sweet Potato Cake with fresh avocado, black bean salsa and a lettuce chiffonade

 The guests (and staff) loved this event because of the different style and even though we served smaller portions, we had plenty of food and no one went home hungry.

Snow pea-wrapped shrimp skewers with cocktail dipping sauce

Our gelato station was also a big hit. We served six different flavors of gelato: chocolate hazelnut with brownie chunks, salted caramel popcorn, lingonberry, blood orange, kaffir lime leaf and toasted sesame seed. The guests had fun tasting each flavor and going back for more.

 Let your guests know how much you appreciate them with the stunning tastes, looks and professionalism that we are famous for. Book Savory for your next event and we will make it an enjoyable, stress-free evening for you.



All of these pictures were taken by the talented Bekah Loss. View the rest of her pictures from this event at http://www.bekahloss.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html

Fresh Ingredients

 Spring is always an exciting time of the year. The trees are budding, colorful flowers are blooming, and our part of the world is becoming green again. For me, spring brings the anticipation of eating fresh(er) fruits and vegetables. I love visiting the roadside stands and picking out the best apples, melons, and fresh corn.

Vibrant purple Hyacinth. It smelled SO good.

Fresh ingredients are the best ingredients. There is no contest about it. Try it yourself. Take a can of canned corn (my husband, for some reason, loves canned corn) and a fresh ear of corn. Eat the two types side by side and you can taste a difference. Both taste like corn, but the fresher corn has a bigger depth of flavor. Plus it's doesn't taste like preservatives.

My love of fresh ingredients comes from my family. My siblings and I grew up tilling, planting, weeding, and harvesting our small garden. It is a beautiful and exciting process to see a tiny seed be planted, poke out of the ground and become a full fledged plant. I tried to learn as much as I could about the different plants and their varying needs.  Those same concepts I learned as a young whippersnapper are used at Savory.

We believe in using only the freshest ingredients from our approved sources. Just yesterday Chef Lou had me taste test some muffins we were sampling from a store. She picked up on a slight preservative aftertaste in the muffin and we decided that we could make a better tasting, fresher muffin. We also translate that same idea of working together into our own catering family.

See the difference yourself! Whether your home be big or small, try growing your own garden. Plant some fresh herbs, an upside-down tomato plant, fruit trees, peppers, squash, etc.

Cook with fresh ingredients, it'll make all the difference.

The Vibrant Colors of Spring

Even though we haven't reach the official "first day of spring", we at Savory just couldn't wait three more weeks!

For our event this week, we decorated with bright colors, ushering in the beautiful season! The serving room at Microsoft had bright colors and was a great place for such a bright buffet.

We used a bright blue, green, and yellow striped tablecloth and then accented with colored popcorn in jars- completely edible!

 The colored popcorn fit well with the casual luncheon setting. My favorite was the dark blue color- what's yours?

The menu: Warm pork tenderloin sandwiches with caramelized onions, muenster cheese, red pepper ailoli on a handmade Kaiser roll; lettuce and pickles were optional; an Asian salad with bowtie pasta, sesame seed oil, craisins, mandarin oranges and spinach; our newest addition to our dessert menu: white chocolate Oreo brownie.

 

 This Asian salad is actually Vegan. We easily adapt our recipes to make it Vegan, Vegetarian, gluten free, lactose free, and can accommodate those with common food allergies.

 Our newest addition to the Savory family is this dessert. It is everything you want: moist brownie, Oreo crumbles and delectable white chocolate. Include this in your order for dinner, luncheons, or even on a wedding buffet!

 

With Savory your corporate lunches will no longer be boring!

The Tasting Room

Savory Catering is pleased to present:  

The Tasting Room

 We consulted Jessie Crandall to help us in the design of this room. It's not completely finished yet, but it already looks fabulous!

 With all the leaves in, this table can seat 12 people. 

Perfect for small, formal dinners catered by Savory or for tastings.

 We like to set up the table with different centerpieces. This one has a natural twist to a modern look. We used different colored river rocks and wheat grass for the natural elements.

 

 

 This table setting is set for spring! For dinners, guests get to dine on our modern white square china with silverware and water goblets.

 The centerpiece has many different shaped jars with bright colors to reflect the wonderful spectrum of Spring.

 

We used lemon drops, red hots, and butterscotch candies to fill the jars. We also added some natural elements to the centerpiece like river rocks, flowers, candles, moss, etc.

 

 Our credenza, or sideboard, is a beautiful piece of furniture.

 

The credenza has three compartments, great for storing our cake plates and other decorative platters. It has a mirrored front for an extra touch of elegance.

 

As with our table, we can decorate the sideboard for different occasions. Above, it is decorated with silver and crystal for a specific tasting we had. Below, it has a more modern twist with lots of golds, browns and blacks.

 

This cozy display is on our metal shelves framing the credenza. We found these items at a local thrift store!

 Above this table hangs this light fixture. The grill work you see on this light is also carried throughout the room in details like the rug and credenza.

This rug is a fun, attention grabbing addition to the room. It is intentionally a random pattern.

 

The Tasting Room is available for small dinner parties like high school dance group dinners. We can decorate specifically to your event and while you dine on fine cuisine you can enjoy your dinner-and your date- away from the crowd. Contact us today to book your event!

Our New Building

If you've followed our blog at all, you'll know that Savory just moved into a new commercial building. It took about a year for us to move into our building, but we're here and we're loving it! We have a lot more storage space, bigger ovens, and we even have a tasting room.

This room is called the bakery, because most of our delicious desserts will be concocted in this room!

We've also utilized above head storage (not pictured). Our disposable wear and buffet decorations are stored on those shelves.

As you can see we're using all the shelves we can get! It's so nice to have a much bigger space, we're not running into each other as often. 

Our building also has a huge walk in freezer and refrigerator, dry storage room, china storage room, and a little office.

Then, there is the tasting room.

I'll do a full post on this room because it really is fantastic, but here are a few teaser photos. This room was designed by Jessie Crandall- She did a great job!

 The room has a modern "grill work" motif throughout the room. It's carried through the room on such pieces as the lamps, the credenza and the rug.

Then we have our front door. I'm a big fan of our striped awning.

Now, a question for you, faithful reader:

 what kind of decoration should we put outside our front door?

Leave your suggestions below and perhaps even a link to a picture of it.

All Boxed Up

Savory's catering services are extensive. Among others, we cater weddings, club dinners, birthday parties, quinceañeras, work parties, and conferences.

Our most recent event was for a Digigirlz conference at Microsoft in Lehi, UT. Digigirlz is a Microsoft YouthSpark program, which gives high school girls the opportunity to learn about careers in technology, connect with Microsoft employees, and participate in hands-on computer and technology workshops.

Each box lunch had a sandwich- chicken salad sandwich with a hint of sweet curry OR a turkey and ham sandwich with a southwestern Mayo- pretzels, southwestern pasta salad, a rocky road brownie, a mint, and a drink.

 

Our boxed lunches are a great fit for conferences, corporate lunch meetings, and many more occasions! Call us for menus and prices.