Joshua Riazi has helped countless couples have the weddings of their dreams thanks to the innovative menus he creates for clients at Ripe Food and Events. As owner of one of the premiere catering companies in Rhode Island, Riazi has gained all the experience necessary to handle any type of event. In this article, he explains how brides and grooms can choose their wedding menu.
The thing with weddings is that all types of guests are typically invited. So what that means for the couple is that they have to take a variety of personal tastes dietary issues into consideration when designing the perfect menu for a reception dinner.
To make it easier on everyone, I generally recommend that couples at least think about creating a menu based around some more general food items that everyone will enjoy. Exotic foods are great in other situations, but when you are looking a wedding where multiple generations from a family will be involved and where you are again feeding a large group of people with varied tastes, I recommend sticking with basic dishes that the widest number of people will appreciate.
At the same time, though, clients need to remember that this is their wedding. So the food should also reflect their own tastes and what they like eating the most. What does the couple want, and what kinds of food do they eat regularly?
A wedding is a couple’s most memorable moment, so as a caterer we want to find the right balance between choosing dishes for the menu that the couple is going to be fond of and that the guests are going to love eating, as well.
In terms of the specific dishes that we serve at most weddings that we cater here at Ripe Food and Events, I would certainly say it depends from couple to couple. The trend for quite a while, though, has been towards giving guests the option between a fish, chicken, or beef dish, and putting those options right on the response card inside the invitation. When people are given the chance to select their main dish ahead of time, it gives them an idea of what to expect and it gives us an idea of how much to prepare of each dish.
One thing that some couples do to make their wedding day unique is to use a family recipe as the main dish. If that is something that a couple is interested in, I would definitely encourage them to bring the recipe in so we can try it and get it perfected before the big day. We love challenges and we love trying new things here at Ripe Food and Events, so the chance to step out of our box and work on adapting a family recipe to a large group is always a challenge that we will make work.
Once we have practiced the family recipe for a while, we will usually invite the couple out and ask them to sample it so that we can get their feedback. Normally, it isn’t on the first visit that a couple samples the dishes, though. Rather, it is at a later meeting after we have had time to put together a couple menu items for them to try.
During the first meeting with the caterer, couples should plan on having just a basic meet and greet where we will find out about them and their event. During that meeting, we will try to get as much basic information from them as possible, including things like how many people are coming to the wedding, where the venue will be, and what types of menu items they were thinking about. Along with food questions, we will ask whether they still need to get any rentals because here at Ripe Food and Events we don’t just make food, we also handle party rentals and things like that, too.
So like I said, the first visit with the caterer is usually just a chance for both parties to get to know each other and find out as much information about each other as possible. We want to know what our clients are looking for, their expectations, and those types of things.
And then normally we will set up a second appointment to sample possible menu items. We do this mainly just so our clients can get an idea of the things we can make and taste the food to make sure it is what they want.
I have to say, usually the tasting seals the deal. Once you have the food out and people are getting the chance to taste it, they are excited about the entire event and ready to go.
