FIVE bridal / wedding tastings today!   We are on number three now….the Wedding Showroom is busy today!

We celebrated the beginning of 2012 by expanding our facility in Hunt Valley!  We welcomed ROUGE BISTRO serving lunch Mon – Fri from 10:30 until 2:30.  Plenty of seating!

 We are also excited to announce the opening of our  Wedding/Bridal Showroom.  We can now treat our prospective brides and grooms in this private tasting room!  In our Bridal Showroom we have a ‘feature wall’ that showcases some of our partners in the biz…..our favorite VENUES, FLORISTS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, RENTAL COMPANIES, ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC……..this is one stop wedding planning heaven!

Like us on Facebook to get updates and see pictures of our expansion  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rouge-Fine-Catering/148160721869656

Good morning B’more!  Happy Purple Friday! 

All Rouge Fine Catering Executive Management Team, Kitchen Management, Catering Managers, and Support Staff have completed and passed the TIPS (Training for Intervention Procedures) alcohol service training class! Rouge is setting a high standard for responsible alcohol service. Only choose a caterer who values such principles! www.gettips.com

All Caterers are not created equal

The difficulty in finding a good caterer with whom you can entrust your event (sometimes the most important day of your life) resides in the fact that in the catering industry there are very little standards for quality of the delivered product.  Opposed to most industries where one needs to obtain a diploma/certificate or experience to guarantee that their product or service is up to a minimum standard, in catering, one is only required to successfully complete a six hour course on food safety and you are in business!  As a result, a $50.00 meal from two caterers can be drastically different for the better or the worse!

The following ‘inside catering’ information will help you make a wise and more educated decision for your next event. 

Catering comes in two major formats:

   – Delivery of a meal with no attendant.

   – Full service event where food is delivered and served by catering    

     staff.

Meal Delivery

For a simple meal delivery for a lunch or office meeting, there are several outfits in town that can do a good job.  Your risk is minimized because the food is often simple, mostly cold, and you only rely on the caterer for having the delivery there on time.

The main concern in this style of event is in the quality of food and the level of sanitation standards that were practiced in the process of food storage, handling, and preparation.  There is also the concern that the food arrives on time with all of the utensils and small wares that are required for food service.

Tips to navigate these parameters are grouped with the ones for large/full service events, and will follow. 

Full Service Events with Catering Staff/Servers

For the Full Service event you should use all of your knowledge about caterers in order to make an educated decision. 

Hiring a caterer for an event gives the caterer a great deal of control on the outcome of the party. 

How do you know if a caterer deserves your trust?  If your event is for 75 or more guests you need to diligently check and choose a caterer.  The following are some basics that you should never ignore.

1. The catering outfit needs to be large enough and have the resources and equipment available to deliver the job under any circumstances. 
2. Ask the caterer for one reference of repeat business in the past month and also for one reference from the previous week and call them.  Remember to take into consideration that these references are from the most successful jobs that have been completed.
3. Ask the caterer if they use frozen food products.  Many caterers do, especially those that have low volume.  This will save you from hearing your guests comment that the appetizers taste just like the ones that they bought at Sam’s Club!
4. Require fresh, fresh, fresh food!  This is critical for the success of your event.  Demand on site food preparation/cooking, especially for proteins.  This makes a world of difference in the quality of the prepared food.
5. It is imperative to visit the caterer’s premise unannounced.  This will give you a snap shot of their work and their ability to manage your job. 
6. Ask the caterer to show you their transport equipment.  Do not feel that you are being too invasive.  Remember that catered food makes more people sick than all other food service areas combined.  This is mainly due to the transport of the food and time and temperature mishandling.  Well maintained and clean transport equipment is crucial.  Be wary if the caterer rents equipment for each job.  Rental equipment is not as reliable as owned equipment.  If a rental oven is not functioning properly, your tenderloin may end up a steak tartar. 
7. Pay a lot of attention to the sanitation of the commissary.  It will not get any better on site, but it may get worse.  (please see sanitation letter on our website www.rougecatering.com)
8. If your party is large enough ($5000.00 or more) you should request a full blown tasting from prospective catering companies.  The tasting should be free of charge, and again, this food is the very best that the caterer will serve.
9. Ask if the servers are members of the caterer’s regular staff or if they are from a temp agency.  Agency staff comes with very little or no references, even the caterer does not know them.  This staff will be interacting with your guests, roaming around your home or office.  Honesty issues are not uncommon.  Also ask how many staff will be working the event. 
10. Allergy and food sensitivities are very common these days.  Our industry is actually still very primitive on this issue.  In the Northeast, only Massachusetts requires food service providers to have their employees watch a (½ hour) allergy awareness video.  We have an operation in Massachusetts and all of our personnel in both Massachusetts and Maryland have been thoroughly educated in allergy awareness issues. You do not want your party remembered for making a guest sick.
11. Proposals and contracts – pressure your caterer to give you one complete price per person for the event.  There is a habit in this industry to nickel and dime the customer.  The contract should clearly spell out what is included (everything that is on the table should be included) and what is not included but necessary (such as rentals/floral/cake/servers).  It is a bad idea to dive into the jungle of cost per item (rental/floral/cake/servers).  Require one price per person all inclusive!  Be wary of contracts that are too long and have many disclaimers.  Remember that most caterers start with very small contracts and as they experience problems they add clauses.  Long contracts often denote a caterer that has had a myriad of problems.  Never sign off on the fact that the caterer is not responsible for damage at the event site or for honesty issues.  The caterer does not necessarily need to be responsible for honesty issues but should not outright remove themselves from the responsibility.  We have heard of incidents where a bride and groom were missing packages from the gift table.  The caterer had an abundant amount of temp agency staffing.  When the couple approached the caterer on the honesty issue, the caterer pointed out that they had signed off on the contract stating that the caterer had no responsibility. 
12. Bidding – While bidding an event it is easier to give a budget to the bidders and ask them to work within your budget.  They should give you their best menu for your price.  It is much easier for you to compare than to get involved in price analysis item by item.  Worry about prices that seem too low – they are often too good to be true. 
13. Use caterers that are ecologically friendly.  We are a driving force in this effort.  By giving a job to an eco-friendly company you are rewarding the ones of us that are investing so much time, effort, and money into trying to do what is right for our planet. 
14. Lastly, a good caterer can be used as a great resource for your event.  We have an intimate knowledge of what our clients like and don’t like.  We have experience that often the host or hostess does not have about how an event should ‘flow’. 

I hope that all of this advice will help you build a great event.  We certainly would love to be part of your plan!  In any case, if you need a tip or some advice, please feel free to contact me via email and I will help you the best I can.  jsoudry@rougecatering.com

Respectfully,

Jonathan Soudry

As fall is quickly approaching, you may be thinking of ways to incorporate a great autumn theme to your next dinner or cocktail party. Take it one step further, and go LOCAL. Maryland produces some fabulous items in the fall. From a variety of squashes, greens, Asian pears, pomegranates, cranberries, beets, potatoes, and leeks, you can create amazing fall inspired menus that will delight your senses and support the local farms and agriculture. Check out some of the local fall recipes below to try at your next dinner or cocktail hour:

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All Rouge Fine Catering Executive Management Team, Kitchen Management, Catering Managers and Support Staff have now completed and passed the Accredited Management Certification Food Protection Course through ServSafe. We put a huge emphasis on delivering safe and quality events to our customers!

To learn about the ServSafe program, click the following link for additional information

http://www.servsafe.com/FoodSafety/

Dear Friend and Catering Client;

This letter is in response to a recently published article by MSNBC. The article reports on the frequent cases of food poisoning caused by caterers. The numbers are sobering, 76,000,000 (yes, seventy six million) people in the United States contract a food borne illness each year from consuming catered food – and 5,000 of them die. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) reports that the number of cases of food borne illness caused by caterers outpaces those from restaurants and home cooking.

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