May 2001 - Edited from Philadelphia Magazine, Meg Cohen Ragas
I may have only been six, but I knew the best thing about my parent's parties was the finger food - baby quiches with flaky crusts, crisp potato pancakes, pigs wrapped in doughy blankets. Perched at the top of the stairs, my brothers and I watched as stylish men and women dressed in black and white passed trays laden with the most beautiful food we'd ever seen. Now, years later, I've found myself at many catered events, and I still take note of the same things that impressed me then: hors d'oeurve presentation, impeccable service, buffets overflowing with creatively prepared foods. The next time you entertain, treat yourself, and hire one of these experts - some familiar, some new and noteworthy - to cook up a spectacular evening.
Peachtree & Ward Catering
Their plan was always to open a restaurant. Luckily for Jon and Lori Weinrott's clients, it never happened. Eighteen years ago, the couple, self-professed Francophiles, returned from abroad, where they'd apprenticed at two and three-star restaurants in Paris, Chablis and Burgundy, and got married. They helmed the kitchens at Joel Assouline's Two Quails (now Vetri) and the Fairmount Firehouse before branching out on their own. "Catering was a different business when we started," says Jon. "It was really inexpensive to get off the ground; you needed no capital, just a grill. We thought catering would keep us sharp and visible until we opened our restaurant." The problem was, people kept calling and booking them for events. So the Weinrott's bought a house in Roxborough, on Pechin Street, and converted it into their headquarters. The address inspired their name - Peachtree - because it was consistently mispronounced.
The firm, now based in Willow Grove, has developed a reputation for designing tony events with a creative twist. At the "Taste of Broadway" night for last year's annual Academy Ball cocktail reception, hosted by Cigna Corporation, waiters dressed as stagehands served 400 guests who dined at South Pacific, The King and I, and Fiddler on the Roof food stations. And last summer, Peachtree catered the grand opening of the Children's Boutique on Walnut Street, serving peanut-butter-and-peach-preserve sandwiches to the pint-sized guests.
Special summer menu: Valencia orange salad on a bed of celery and flat-leaf parsley; oven-roasted tenderloin of beef with baharat seasoning and Lebanese red pepper sauce with Kizbarah and parsley, accompanied by truffled potato duchesse and arugula and mustard green "saag," spun "lacy" chocolate bird nests filled with homemade sorbet eggs.
Signature dishes: "Bundles of Joy" crepes filled with golden whitefish caviar, sour cream and scallions; Asian noodle nest "foo young" on chopsticks; jumbo lump crab "cigars" with lemongrass sauce.
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