Every December I notice the same thing about the hosts who actually enjoy their own parties, and it is not that they are better cooks. It is that they decided weeks earlier not to spend the evening in the kitchen. I have been the other kind of host. It is a worse party, and the food was not any better for it.
Let’s talk about catering a holiday party around here. This is not really a piece about food. It is about the few decisions that settle whether hiring a caterer makes your evening easier or just makes it longer, and about the range this region actually has to offer in December.
WHAT A CATERER ACTUALLY SELLS YOU IS NOT DINNER
Strip the menu away and here is what you are buying: you get to be a guest at your own party. The food shows up, the quantities were somebody else’s problem, the dietary requests were collected and answered, and there is a plan for the dishes. That is the product.
The food is the visible part, and the part everyone negotiates over. It is also the part you will remember least. Ask anyone who has hosted a large holiday dinner what they remember about the meal they served. The honest answer is usually that they did not sit down for most of it.
The concession is obvious and worth saying anyway. This is money you do not have to spend. If your party is ten people who all cook, or if the cooking is the part of the holiday you look forward to, hiring it out takes away the thing you enjoy. A good party does not require a vendor.
THE QUESTIONS THAT DECIDE WHETHER IT IS A FIT
This is the list I would take into the first phone call. Almost none of it is about food.
- How many people, and are they seated or standing? A seated dinner for thirty is a different job from passed appetizers for thirty.
- Drop-off, buffet, family style, plated, or full service? Full service means servers, setup and cleanup. Drop-off means trays in your kitchen and you running the evening.
- What will the caterer need from my house? Oven space, refrigerator space, a sink, an outlet, and somewhere to park. This is the question that saves the evening, and nobody asks it until the van is in the driveway.
- Who provides the dishes, linens and chafing fuel? Written down rather than assumed.
- Dietary restrictions, collected before you book. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, allergies. Ask your guests in the invitation, not the week of the party.
- What is actually in the quote? A number with nothing behind it is not a quote. A list naming what is included is.
- Can we do a tasting? Any caterer who has done this for a while will say yes.
Two more worth asking: whether they are still taking holiday dates, and whether they have recent events you can call.
THE COMPARISON I REACH FOR, AND WHERE IT STOPS WORKING
The closest ordinary thing I can think of is ordering takeout for a crowd.
That gets the instinct right. The food shows up, somebody else cooked it, and nobody spent the afternoon chopping.
Where it stops working is the interesting part. Takeout is a transaction between you and a restaurant’s own kitchen, which is built to produce food in volume. Catering moves the kitchen into your house, and your house is not built for it. One oven. One refrigerator, already full. No prep line, and a driveway that may or may not fit a van. Everything that can go sideways happens in your space, on a night when thirty people are arriving.
Which is why the part of the conversation that matters most has so little to do with the menu. You are choosing somebody who has walked into a hundred houses that were not theirs and made dinner work anyway.
WHAT IS ACTUALLY ON THE TABLE AROUND HERE
This region has an unusually wide catering range for its size, and the reason is farm-to-fork. The metro built its food identity on locally grown produce.
Holiday menus look like holiday menus, which is the point. Turkey, ham, prime rib, pork loin, roasted chicken, tri-tip, and enough sides to fill the table. If you want something else, you can find it: sushi, charcuterie and grazing boards, barbecue, pasta, international menus, and vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free versions of most of it.
My brokerage keeps its own roundup of Sacramento-area caterers. Notre Ferme cooks from seasonal, locally produced ingredients. Crisp Catering builds holiday menus and an all-appetizer option. Food Simply works through private chefs and custom menus. The Hidden Table has cooked farm-to-fork food here for more than twenty years. Elana’s Kitchen and Catering covers the traditional holiday lineup and international menus. Shef Madres cooks California-Mediterranean, with vegan and gluten-free menus. Chef Taka Watanabe hosts in-home sushi parties for ten or more. Fork and Vine runs catering and personal chef service. Grazing Craving builds charcuterie and grazing spreads. I have not eaten at all nine, so read that as a starting list rather than my ranking.
THE PART THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CATERING
Hosting a crowd is the one time of year most people genuinely look at their house. If the thought that arrives is that the house has stopped fitting how you live, December is not the month to act on it, but it is worth writing down. If you are on the buying side of that thought, the neighborhoods hub has an honest guide to each area I work, and the buying process page is the short version of how a purchase moves from there.
WHAT I WOULD TELL YOU TO WEIGH
- You give up control. You approve a menu weeks ahead, then eat what you approved.
- Your kitchen becomes somebody else’s workspace for an evening. Ask the questions above before you say yes.
- Full service is the version where you get your evening back, and the largest commitment. Drop-off is where most hosts should start.
- Holiday dates go early. December fills first and a tasting takes time to schedule.
- The alternatives are legitimate. A potluck, a grazing table you build yourself, or dinner at a restaurant all solve a version of the same problem. A caterer answers a specific one.
Question for you: when you picture the party going well, are you in the kitchen holding a spoon, or in the other room with the people you invited? That answer settles more than any menu will.
Adapted from Choosing a Sacramento-Area Caterer for Holiday Parties, originally published by Windermere Signature Properties at windermerecalocal.com.
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