With any celebratory event, one of the most important and often most remembered parts is the food.
And after we’ve spent two years enjoying home-cooked or delivery meals more than ever before, families are seeking to add a little panache to their parties – even if on a lower-key scale compared to past years.
In this spring 2022 party season, Nicole Dauria, founder of Pop Culture CLE in Solon; Joan Rosenthal, founder and president of Marigold Catering in Cleveland; and Izzy Schachner, co-owner of 56 Kitchen & Catering in Beachwood, say meals remain intimate. They intend to make guests feel as comfortable as possible celebrating life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Buffet-style meals are still in but in smaller, more personal settings. With a combination of pandemic measures and families seeking more close-knit celebrations, spring catering trends also incorporate plated meals, Schachner says.
“It’s a little more intimate in that nature,” he says. “Some of the trends are leaning towards comfort.”
Rosenthal says, “These concepts lend themselves to individual plates, especially since it’s what we’re seeing through the pandemic.”
Individual plating and single-serve items are extending into dessert menus, Dauria says. Her business specializes in single-serve, gourmet ice pop desserts.
“Individual treats are continuing to be a big thing, and Pop Culture CLE lends itself to that,” she says. “Prepackaged treats are easier with transport and helps with the overall shelf life of everything, too.”
With these smaller, more personal catered events, home-style cooking and finger foods are highly requested, Rosenthal says, adding that many of her customers are looking to easy meals they know most attendees will recognize, so as not to bog down the festivities.
“People are definitely going back to comfort food,” she says. “They’re asking for late night snacks, a call back to those old-fashioned American-style snacks like tacos, burgers, soft-pretzels, milkshakes and grilled cheese. We’re going back to that. Everyone also always orders our short ribs, which seems like a popular dish. That also goes back to that old comfort food sort of meal.”
Schachner says comfort food is becoming a big trend not only because of the slowly warming weather, but because of how stressful life can be. Party planners and families alike are seeking to create a place of safety at their events – an environment to let loose and unwind.
“Everyone is so tired of the world right now that we want to be comforted during these family events,” he says.
And if catering menus can feature comfort food-inspired items but made vegan, that’s a big selling point for many clients, Dauria says.
“Vegan is a big thing I’ve been hearing on my end, and also dairy-free desserts,” she says. “For a lot of people, even for me, later in life we develop an issue with dairy. It doesn’t like my body. I hear it from customers too. If (dairy-free) can be an option, just stick with that.”
In general, health-conscious foods are sitting on the opposite end of the catering trend spectrum this season, Schachner says.
“There are a lot of salmons and salads on our menus,” he says. “With health-conscious foods, that can also be comforting in itself. It reminds people of the idea of being and eating better. It’s comforting in a different way.”
Edible flowers within frozen desserts is another dessert trend Dauria has seen that lends to a cleaner, brighter treat when surrounded by the cold Cleveland climate.
“It’s like a lemonade or peach sangria type of dessert, so it’s a clear ice pop and you can see (the flowers) inside,” she says. “It’s pretty, and it’s a new way to use edible flowers. Before, it would be on the top of the dessert, but now we’re able to put them inside.”
With all sorts of catering trends at our fingertips, Rosenthal adds that a successful event is doing what you want and having fun with it. That might be a combination of both healthy and traditionally-labeled comfort foods – whatever makes you happy, she says.
“We’re doing a wedding coming up where a customer is skewering seafood and making it into a late-night snack or finger food,” she says. “A lot of it is in the presentation and equipment. It’s marrying that contemporary food that always comes back on trend with a comfort food twist. It’s there where a fresh take on something recognizable makes it contemporary and new.”