Mid-March, winners of the ACE awards took the stage at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. To enter, each contender was asked to identify the two events the company completed that it felt best represented the company, as well as challenges and favorite aspects.
Throughout the year, Catersource.com has been profiling the winners and nominees of the 2017 ACE awards. In the next installation of our series, we are placing a keen eye on Minneapolis’ Crave Catering, an ACE finalist.
American Lung Association's Inaugural Oxygen Ball
All photos courtesy of Crave Catering
The Minnesota chapter of the American Lung Association asked the team at Crave Catering to create a lasting wow experience for their first ever fundraising gala. This event, above all others that year, challenged the team to meet a tight budget and unknown expectations. The client's time line, spatial demands, and color scheme all combined to make this an incredibly challenging and ultimately rewarding experience for our team.
Challenges
“Our first obstacle was developing a menu that spoke to oxygen, something that can't be seen,” said Crave executive chef John Chesnut. “We chose bubbles as a method of message delivery. We had individual bubbles filled with food during the pre-gala, passed by servers wearing bubble dresses. We had even more servers with whimsical face and body paint blowing bubbles as guests entered the building.”
The second hurdle was the client's event timeline: they demanded that the gala not be interrupted with food service. “This meant that we had to have everything for the meal pre-set prior to guest arrival, as the main ballroom was open from the beginning of the event. Time and temperature concerns lead us to develop a creative approach to a refined, healthy entrée,” chef said.
The last and final challenge was twofold: creating a unique plating display and making food look beautiful in an abundance of blue light. “We had it in our minds from the beginning that light should be incorporated into our plated display, and after the menu was fully conceptualized we then knew how [to accomplish the task],” said chef. “We created individual art installations at each seat. Beginning with the plated entree topped with a clear plate cover we inverted a light that emitted the same hue as the Lung Association’s swirl logo. We then placed a 12-inch tall, plated dessert on top of each light. The total height at each seat exceeded 18 inches.
Food as art. The champagne Bellini bubble, composed of white chocolate champagne mousse and peach coulis, was structurally sound enough to sit as the pinnacle for each place setting.
“Of course we experienced other challenges that day during setup. Room temperature played havoc with our chocolate dessert and ice sculptures; however, the client was so in awe of what was created, the minor imperfections were not even noticed.”
Favorite aspects
The execution of making the seen…unseen turned out to be one of the favorite Crave Catering team ideas for the whole year. “When we were first challenged to make air, oxygen, visible we were definitely stressed,” said chef. “Through team ideation sessions we discovered new serving vessels, blew a lot of bubbles, and created even more blue food. Ultimately, the object was to exceed the expectations of our client, which they assured us we did by rebooking for the following year.”
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