06 Aug The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Event Catering: 3 Reasons Comfort Food Wins the Room
Why Comfort Food?
Corporate catering might bring to mind cliché scenes of fluorescent lights, sad pizza boxes, and sweaty turkey wraps, but that doesn’t have to be the case!
In fact, serving warm comfort food like hand-made Eastern European favorites such as golden pierogies, smoky kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, haluski, meatballs and fresh salads can completely change the mood of the room.
Whether you’re hosting a small client lunch or an all-day conference, here are our top three reasons to choose comfort food for your next event.
1. Saves time and stress
Feeding a group isn’t easy. There’s a budget to consider. The food needs to taste good, be easy to serve, and keep everyone satisfied.
Comfort food works because people get it. There aren’t any mysterious ingredients. It is familiar, welcoming, and substantial.
Creating a straightforward menu of half and full pans saves tons of time spent trying to estimate individual portions. No back-and-forth with last-minute menu changes and stressing over headcounts. It guarantees there’s enough for everyone (even folks sneaking back for seconds).
Put a pan of pierogies on the table and people naturally gather around it.
Someone might mention how their grandmother used to make them. Someone else may begin a surprisingly serious conversation about whether pierogies belong with sour cream, applesauce, or both.
We consider that a success.
2. Makes long meetings easier
If it is a long meeting or presentation, there are more substantial dishes like Stuffed Cabbage, Meatballs in gravy, or Pasta with Chicken Alfredo.
A good comfort food spread can help reduce that 2:30 PM slump because you’ve provided an actual healthy lunch. Most standard corporate meals are designed to create the appearance of lunch, leaving people hungry before the meeting is even finished!
It’s also incredibly easy to feed an all-day crowd! Having a plan in place with our three-foot or six-foot Party Hoagies is practical and substantial enough to keep everyone fueled between sessions.
3. Allows for more fun, flavor, and connection
While some people may not associate the word “corporate” with “fun”, we promise that it’s possible! Serving familiar favorites like our golden Potato Cheese Pierogies can add personality and interest to your usual meeting routine.
We know how easy it is to get stuck in an office sandwich “rut”, so taking time to plan a warm, homemade spread can help get you out of this!
Familiar food can also reduce the stiffness of corporate events, which can help add genuine connection back into your team’s routine.
Even though “comfort food” sounds simple, it actually allows for tons of flexibility! Half pans work perfectly for smaller department gatherings, while full pans make sure your biggest office celebrations are abundantly stocked.
Finally, comfort food introduces genuine Eastern European flavors while still keeping the meal widely loved. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice flavor for convenience!
What makes up a great catering spread?
There’s no single “best way to cater an event”, but these are a few strategies we’ve found to be helpful for our clients and the teams we’ve fed!
Full of generosity and personality
One of the best indicators of a great corporate meal is how generous it feels! The more hearty, flavorful dishes you can get onto the table, the better! A generous spread signals that someone has actually invited the team to eat, rather than just arranging for neutral food to be present. At Lviv European Kitchen, we encourage a warm, communal eating experience, which simply means people will be coming back for seconds!
We have developed an amazing menu of handmade pierogies, smoky kielbasa, haluski, and fresh salads that make hosting healthfully easier.
Kept hot and finish with a sweet
The main dishes get the attention, but the small details keep your event running smoothly!
Pierogies should be warm, and meatballs should be bubbling. We offer aluminum pans and sterno sets to keep everything hot throughout the event, saving the host from making ungraceful emergency trips to the office microwave!
And don’t forget dessert! Finish the meal with Cannoli, cheesecake, or classic carrot cake. It provides a welcome lift later in the afternoon, and you’ll notice even those who say they “don’t eat sweets” will be the first ones grabbing a slice!
Let’s Put Lunch on the Calendar!
Everything at Lviv European Kitchen is made from scratch by hand. Give us a call at +1 412 262 1210, and we’ll help you choose the right quantities and build a menu that gives everyone something to enjoy!