Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Wedding Catering on Galiano Island

After a full summer of wedding catering on Galiano Island, followed by a quieter but still busy fall, we’ve settled in for a peaceful winter. The events we’re doing right now are smaller and less stressful -- yoga retreats, corporate shindigs and the occasional film industry event in Vancouver -- but it’s difficult not to miss the excitement of a wedding and being a central part of someone’s special day.

We have already taken bookings for weddings in 2011 and even one for 2012, even though 2012 still seems so far away! Still, it is important to do your legwork and homework as far in advance as possible. You want to be certain you find a caterer you feel comfortable with and who makes you feel confident they will deliver the meal you’ve been dreaming about.

Foodisima catered eight weddings in the summer of 2010. One of the things that really came home to me as we worked our way through a fun and busy summer was the fact that providing the catering for a wedding is so much more than making sure the food is on time, as ordered and delicious. For a lot of people, the meal associated with their wedding is the largest and most important party they will ever host. It’s essential that the caterer not lose sight of that: that they stay focused on being part of the team that will render wedding dreams.

I realize that some of that sounds ethereal, but it’s not really. It means working with the wedding couple for months before the big day, thinking through menu possibilities and permutations. It means being ready for bridal melt-downs (though I feel lucky not to have seen one yet, I’m always ready for the eventuality!) and pitching in when details outside of the kitchen have been overlooked.

Weddings are special. It’s different than any other type of catering. A corporate dinner for 100 just can’t compare to a wedding dinner for the same number. People are happy, laughing. Love is in the air and everyone comes prepared to have a good time.

If you’re getting ready for your wedding on Galiano Island, we’re looking forward to talking with you. We anticipate another summer of love and laughter, perhaps playing a part in your special day. ◊

Note: we created the menu above at left for one of the weddings we catered during the summer of 2010. This is a special service we provide, including one for each of your guests as well as a few extra for your scrapbook or wedding album.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free by Silvana Nardone

It seems that, over the last decade or so, even the simple act of feeding ourselves has gotten to be a lot more complicated. I’m sometimes undecided: was it just that we all suffered in silence -- or at least in ignorance -- when we were kids? Or are we all just more vulnerable these days in a world gone mad with GMOs and other attacks on our delicate systems? Whatever the case, gone are the days when whole platoons of people could relax in the comfort of their “meat and potatoes” preferences. Lately it seems everyone I speak with is dealing with some sort of food sensitivity somewhere close to them. And as anyone who has dealt with these sort of issues knows, anything from a simple (and increasingly common) peanut allergy to lactose intolerance or gluten sensitivities can wreak havoc with a whole family.

This is just what Silvana Nardone had to deal with when her 13-year-old son, Isaiah, was diagnosed with food sensitivities to gluten and dairy. Nardone was forced to rethink every aspect of the way her family ate. The book that resulted from this exploration of whole new food worlds, Cooking for Isaiah (Sprig) could well be life-changing for less talented chefs in a similar position.

“I am not a doctor,” Nardone writes in her introduction. “I am not a nutritionist. I am not a trained chef. I am not a food scientist. I am just a mom who wants to feed her kids.” While all of this is undoubtedly true, more things are true, as well. For instance, unlike a lot of non-chef moms who “just wants to feed her kids,” Nardone is the founding editor of Every Day with Rachel Ray (in fact, Ray writes the introduction here). She’s also a cooking instructor and food consultant and the co-author of Saveur Cooks Italian. However, her understatement is your big gain. Cooking for Isaiah is anything but the floundering amateur chef mom’s attempts at getting dinner on the table. Cooking for Isaiah is simply stuffed full of recipes anyone could feed anyone. Beautiful food, simply prepared, gorgeously presented, lucidly shared. All of us should be as lucky as Nardone’s Isaiah.