Indeed, what DOES catering have to do with gastronomic eco-consciousness? To answer that question, I need to back up a bit. As I've written before, I've been feeding people--lots of people--for quite some time now. On a very basic level, people give me money (and satisfaction for my near-pathological need to feed people), and in return, I give them food. Catering. As it happens, the food I have been giving people happens to be healthful, tasty, quality, organic food. Hence, "green" catering, or catering with a conscience. Now Beth is joining me in this delectible pursuit. In the process, we are maintaining the same practices I have held both personally and professionally all along: We buy fresh and bulk and local and usually from the co-op. Scraps produced in the process of culinary creations are given a second life (veggie scraps to the chickens or rabbits or compost bin; meat scraps to the dogs and cats; leftover bits and pieces worked into meals at home, extra chocolate sauce made into hot cocoa for the kids, etc.) Food is delivered and served on ceramic dishes and retrieved later. You get the picture.
On a recent catering adventure (in the photo above; individual dishes posted below), we served up mushroom caps stuffed with a crunchy parmesan-parsley mixture, mini spinach-goat feta fritatas, jalapeno & red pepper rice balls, tomato-potato gallettes, a simple fruit platter, and gluten-free shortbread, half sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar, the other half drizzed with chocolate. A healthy 98% of the ingredients were certified-organic, and purchased from a certified-organic cooperative retailer. All of which is to say that beautiful, sophisticated food can be healthy, organic, and created in alignment with one's eco-sensibilities.
But there's another level, besides the exchange of good food for money, in which the concept of "catering" comes in to play. When working with a client, the first step is to determine the need: What does the client want/love/enjoy/need from the food ordered? For whom is the food being prepared? Wedding guests? Dear friends? A family gathering? One beloved, special guest? What flavors do the clients prefer? What is the intended nature or ambience of the gathering? In what way will the food create, support or enhance an overall experience for the client and guests?
Once the clients' "needs" are determined, it is our job to fulfill the need, in other words, to "cater to" the desires of the client with their satisfaction, enjoyment and well-being in mind. If you think about it, the food then becomes the messenger, and not the message itself. So when Green caters an event, the point is to create an experience that is at once healthful, whole (closely related to "holy," you know!), engaging and beautiful. Such an experience is really about connections, about reminding the body about the spirit, the spirit about the earth, the stomach about the farmer, even though nary a word is mentioned about any of it.
Just as the old adage claims that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," we at Green believe that the healthy experience of eco-conscious, healthy, organic and truly beautiful food is one path by which people can reconnect with eachother and bettter enjoy and truly nourish the Self. If we can be a part of such a process with and on behalf of our "clients", it just means more joy all around, even for us.
Happy eating! --Sheila