From Josephine B.
MileHighCook
oh boy...we hired Steve of MileHighCook for an "impressive Farewell dinner" for the 84 guests of our 3 day Leadership Event . While our venue did not have a kitchen on site, I rented an additional room for Steve to have all the time/space he needed to set up / prep the food before bringing it up to the Gallery where I had another space blocked off for him for any finishing touches before presenting to our guests. He reassured me that he brings in ovens and warmers, so it wouldn't be a problem. I requested passed Hor dourves, family style dining for 10 tables, white linens, with royal blue napkins and red napkins for the centerpieces, dishware, silverware and glassware (no plastic).
First yellow flag should've been the pricing, but I didn't question it. I stressed that I was hesitant of catering because I wanted a high quality, farm to table experience and was willing to pay more for it, but he told me "no problem, we do this all the time, nothing we can't handle," and that his price was all inclusive to include linens, dishware, glassware and all of the food. Great!
We settled on a menu and timeline of:
7:00-7:30 Hor dourves to be passed
- Gourmet Deviled Eggs
- Mini Caprese Skewers
- Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus
- Smoked Salmon Blinis
7:30pm Dinner served Family Style
- Salad: Arugula w/ Parmesan & Lemon
- Soup: Tomato Basil
- Main: NY Strip w/ compound butter + Lemon Chicken
- Sides: Brussel Sprouts with Balsamic & Sea Salt + Whipped mash
8:30pm Dessert: NY Style Cheesecake w cherry compote
9:00pm Dinner complete
Yellow flag #2: I was CC'd on an email from my venue to Steve at 4pm the day prior to our event stating that they still had not received his paperwork for serving the venue: Caterer Application, Food Service License, Sales Tax License, Most recent Health Inspection & Certification of Food Safety/Protection Manager and that he would not be Permitted to serve our event if it was not completed by midnight...
Day of, Steve and team (+2) arrived on time at 4:00pm to set up in our prep room - myself and my assistant Rachael arrived at 5:20 to find them prepping and were told that they were on schedule. I was saddened to see a stack of plastic, white dishes instead of the dishware I had requested, but let it go - yellow flag #3...
We were not permitted to 'set' the tables until 6pm, but from what I could tell (and was told), they were on track so I left Rachael as an extra hand to help and returned to our hotel to get ready for our 7pm dinner.
Now yellow flags are turning red as I informed Steve that we had adjusted from 10 to 11 tables and I wanted to make sure he had enough platters - he said no problem as we're serving "buffet style." I corrected him, "No, family style." he replied with "Same thing." No...it's not. I clarified once again that we agreed on Family Style with each table receiving their own soup/salad/sides and entrees and he said he had plenty of platters to do so.
At 6:30 I received a text from Rachael that tablecloths were 'forgotten' and wouldn't be there for another 20 min and that the silverware was not rolled. Rachael rolled the silverware in white (not royal blue as discussed) napkins and I returned at 6:47 to still no tablecloths and therefore no tables set for our 84 guests who were due to arrive in 10min. *I had had the option of renting linens from the venue, but had declined since Steve had agreed and CONFIRMED that he would supply them - at this point all of the venue's round linens had been rented out to other parties.
I went to the prep room at 6:51 to check on Steve and team, he did not seem phased by the time and assured me that the table cloths would be there in 1 min and they would be ready in 8min...red flags flying...
Someone finally showed up with a Target bag containing TWO table cloths for our 11 tables. Not helpful, so WE (my team + the bartenders) set the bare tables with the PLASTIC plates and silverware. At this point I asked one of the servers for the glassware. Steve came up and said "I was not told to bring glassware." I replied with "Yes you were." We specifically talked about it in our initial call, it was in our email communication AND I had texted him the night before to confirm that he was supplying it and that the bar was not.
Alas, no drinkware AT ALL, thankfully the bar had plastic cups and we (again, MY team) were able to set the tables with no table cloths, plastic plates, plastic cups and silverware. *thankfully our venue's tables were essentially brand new and in great condition, so not having the table cloths wasn't a big eye sore.
It's now 7:20 and my guests have been patiently waiting outside for US to finish setting tables for their 7pm dinner.
One of the servers came up with 6 bowls of spring mix (straight up spring mix, no fixings, no parmesan, no lemon) 1 bowl of walnuts, 1 small bowl of pesto and 1 bowl of Italian dressing (which I later found out because WE had to refill it, came from a Costco sized jug of pre-made dressing) I inquired about the additional 5 bowls of salad for the other 5 tables and was asked if we could in fact do buffet style as they didn't have enough bowls/platters to do family... so as our guests were walking in we were frantically setting up two additional banquet tables for our "buffet" which at this moment was 6 bowls of lettuce and a couple of toppings.
Everyone arrived to 4 trays of appetizers laid out (not passed) on our blank buffet. They went quickly - more continued to trickle in and myself and MY team passed them to hungry guests.
At 7:25 I was told that because Stephen had plugged all 3 ovens into the same socket, they had blown the power - it would be another 20min to get the power back and another 20min to cook the steak. At this point I was ready to order pizza just to ensure we HAD food, but knew it would still be another 45min.
Our venue graciously moved Steve to another room to get the ovens going again and finally platters of mashed potatoes arrived, followed by a couple platters of steak. They went quickly and guests waited for the next round to come out to eat. Every 5-10min more food would emerge. Finally some asparagus arrived (was supposed to be wrapped in prosciutto and passed as an hor dourve) and I had another friend walk around and serve it to guests who had already started eating. Eventually brussel sprouts (some more cooked than others and lacking the 'balsamic/sea salt' topping) made an appearance and again were passed by my team. NO service whatsoever aside from bringing the food up was given.
All of our guests had finally eaten around 8:45 and food slowed down. Mini cheesecakes were brought out for dessert and I passed them to our guests.
Because of the delay in our food, we overstayed our welcome at the venue. Dinner was supposed to wrap at 9, so we could clean up and be out by 9:30, but it was well past 10:00 before Stephen and his crew were packed up.
I went down to the prep room at the end of the night - knowing that it had also been a stressful night for them, I mustered up the only compliment I could give, that many guests said that the food was good. I asked for the rest of the steak and cheesecakes to be boxed up and when I returned to collect them saw Eggo Mini Pancake (used to make our smoked salmon blinis) boxes and pre-cooked steak boxes on the floor. A quick google search also revealed that the cheesecakes were frozen Junior's Minis all available at your local Costco. So much for farm to table...
So to recap...
- Steve arrived unprepared and seemingly unaware
- forgotten tablecloths
- wrong colored napkins, unrolled silverware
- no glass/drinkware at all
- plastic dishes vs china
- ultimately served buffet vs family style
- served late due to blowing fuses
- no service or presentation - myself and my team set trays on the 'buffet' table and passed apps/sides and desserts as they became available
Incomplete menu:
- No soup
- No Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus
- No Lemon Chicken
- Frozen/pre-made appetizers/desserts and mains
- inaccurate descriptions of menu items
SO if you're looking for someone to show up and reheat food for you Steve of Mile High Cook might be a good option, otherwise steer clear...
