Creative Edge Parties

[Artichoke]

I am interviewing caterers for a wedding I am making with my fiance here in Manhattan. As both of our parents and a number of the guests are kosher, the wedding will be as well. Having never been impressed with most of the kosher catering options in the New York area, I was intrigued when someone told me about Creative Edge. From what I understand, they have a very good reputation and have recently set up a division that received an orthodox certification to do kosher affairs. I do not think they have done any kosher events yet, but has anyone ever been to one of their affairs or know anyone that has used them?

I am meeting with them tomorrow, I don't know anything about their food, but they certainly have the best web site of any caterer I have reviewed so far.

Creative Edge

[Giagie]

I have not heard of that one. Is that who you decided to use for the wedding? I'm in the process of trying to find a caterer for a wedding in the city as well. Are there any threads on here dedicated to catering in NYC? It would be really helpful to find some first hand experiences with various caterers.

[Artichoke]

I have not heard of that one.  Is that who you decided to use for the wedding?  I'm in the process of trying to find a caterer for a wedding in the city as well.  Are there any threads on here dedicated to catering in NYC?  It would be really helpful to find some first hand experiences with various caterers.

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My attempts to secure a caterer have been, to put it mildly, tortuous. There are a lot of great caterers in Manhattan, my problem is that I needed to find a kosher one, who went beyond the usual rubbery stuffed capon and wilted salad. While I myself am not kosher, my family, the brides family and a good number of the guests are. To add another layer of difficulty, the caterer I secured needed to have a kosher certification acceptable to orthodox Jews.

I met with some very good kosher caterers, Simply Divine, headed by Judy Marlow was one. I thought she was very nice, very open to devising a menu to my food obsessed specifications and very good at returning my calls. Unfortunately for me, the kosher certification she has, "Chai Kosher", is not deemed acceptable by orthodox Jews. I looked into Manna Catering , who I had read about in New York Magazine. Dan Lenchner who runs that outfit was also very nice and accomidating, unfortunately for me, he used the same kosher certification as Simply Divine.

Which then brought me to Creative Edge Parties . The heavens parted and I thought my problems were solved. Here was a 14 year old, non-kosher caterer, who did great looking, not your usual, catered affairs and who recently decided to start a kosher division under the auspices of an orthodox kosher certification. Fantastic, everything I wanted, which was to not have to go with the traditional orthodox caterers whose forgetable to downright awful food I have been subjected to countless times during my life.

I met the President and co-owner, Carla Rubin, at their downtown offices. She was attractive, engaging and was eager to work with me in what would have been her first kosher wedding and hopefully the launch of a new division of her business. We worked out a menu together, she had great advice covering all aspects of the wedding and hand delivered a well packaged proposal and menu along with a small box of pastries, nice touch. After one or two tweaks, we were all set to go.

Then the e-mail. While Carla had met my fiancee during our meeting, up untill this point she had only been dealing with me. My fiancee thinks I am far too obsessed with food and was more than happy to give me the task of dealing with caterers. One Sunday evening, close to midnight, Carla sends an e-mail to my fiancee apologizing but explaining that her and her partner had decided that they were not going to pursue the kosher catering business and thus would not be able to move forward.

A phone call I made to Carla the next day was put through to her voicemail and never returned.

A few things. I have no qualms with the fact that she decided to not go forward with a kosher division. For whatever reason, financial, staffing, time management, it did not make sense to her to do it and that is fine, its her business, she knows what is best for her. My wedding is September 10th and so I had time to find someone else. However, after spending time with a potential client, and settling on a menu and price, the very least I would expect would be a phone call. Instead, Carla proved to be a coward and sent an e-mail under cover of night to my fiancee. I will let pass that she never gave any indication during our various discussions that her kosher division was not a sure thing. What I would have liked was the common decency of a phone call. Then to ignore my call to her the next day was realy unprofessional. It was not as if I was calling her to chew her out, I actually wanted to see if she would be willing to act as a paid consultant as I interviewd other caterers. The whole experience left me extremely bitter.

[Sneakeater]

Just be grateful you're not receiving any middle-of-the-night emails from your fiance.

[Sneakeater]

(What a drag that what should be the happiest thing that's ever happened to you had to turn into this hassle!)

[herbacidal]

(What a drag that what should be the happiest thing that's ever happened to you had to turn into this hassle!)

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True dat. You're handling it like a trooper, though.

[MichaelZ]

I attended a catered event at the Jewish Theological Seminary last week, and thought that the food and presentation were very good. While I don't know the name of the caterer, I'm sure that if you called the special events person in the development office at JTS, she'd be happy to give it to you. As I recall, her name is Jordan. Good luck to you and your fiance.

[sadie_siamesecat]

Not sure if this helps, but the "approved" kosher caterer for my venue is Foremost Caterers. http://www.foremostcaterers.com/

I don't know if they meet your standards--but I do hope so, as I have a few Orthodox guests and I would like them to eat at my wedding!

Good luck.

[Artichoke]

Not sure if this helps, but the "approved" kosher caterer for my venue is Foremost Caterers. http://www.foremostcaterers.com/

I don't know if they meet your standards--but I do hope so, as I have a few Orthodox guests and I would like them to eat at my wedding!

Good luck.

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Thank you sadie. I know Foremost well. Having been raised orthodox here in Manhattan, I have been to many affairs catered by them, plus they are the caterer for the synogogue I am a member of on the Upper East side. They were not my first thought because having been to so many affairs that they have catered, I did not think they were the right fit for what I wanted.

Since my fiancee and I are make the wedding (she is 37, I am 36) and it is her second (my first), we wanted it to be a relatively casual affair. It is just our most immdediate family and closest friends, 120 people in total in a loft here in Manhattan. A short ceremony, no bridesmaids or ushers, no black tie, no smorgus board, no food stations. We really just want people to come, dressed casual, drink, eat, dance and have a great time. A cocktail hour following the ceremony, a lot of hors d'ouevres, and no sit down dessert. Rather than disrupt the flow of the evening and dancing, we wanted our desserts to be bite size and passed. From my past experience with Foremost affairs, they followed a fairly traditional path that I wanted to try and avoid.

Having said all of that, I have met with them over the past month (Randy Zablo, CEO and his associate Michael Waiser) and found them to be more amenable than I would have thought to making the kind of menu I envisioned. Of course it all comes down to taste and I will be doing that with them tomorrow evening at their Moonachie, New Jersey headquarters. I will report back tomorrow as to how it went.

The menu is still a work in progress and some things I wanted to do they felt they could not do competantly. Frankly, I felt better about having them being up front about that rather than try and do something beyond their skill set. Three hors d'oevres I suggested did not make the cut. The first was a coronet of salmon tartare. I know, a complete rip off of Tomas Keller, but most caterers are doing it in one form or another, so I did not feel too guilty. Foremost apparently has not had luck making the coronets, I have seen it done with slices of plantains rolled into a cone and fried, but they did not feel comfertable doing that either. The second one that did not get done was fresh hearts of palm sections stuffed with different purees (fava bean, a tapenade, etc). Now, this is a shameless rip off from Grant Achatz's menu at Aliena in Chicago (sorry Grant, but no chefs would have been present to rip off the idea), but as I said, it will not be done. I insisted on fresh hearts of palm and the caterer thought it would be too much trouble. The third item to not make the cut was a steamed dumpling with a veal filling, flavored with garlic and ginger, served in a Chinese spoon sitting in a soy/citrus or ponzu sause. Foremost did not feel comfortable about their dumpling skills.

This is a sampling of some of the hors d'voures we have so far (pending the tasting), I am coming up with more:

BLINI WITH SALMON CAVIAR, CITRUS CREAM (I am unsure of this one, I would like it normally, but since this a kosher wedding with meat being served, there can be no dairy, so, I have to see how bad this non-dairy "cream" is)

TRUFFLED DEVILED EGGS LACED WITH SMOKED SALMON (I wanted traditional deviled eggs, this is what the caterer came back to me with, again, I'll have to see what it tastes like).

TALL SHOTS OF COLD SOUP (Gazpacho, carrot/ginger, vichysoisse)

MINI VEAL BURGERS ONION CONFIT BALSAMIC KETCHUP

DUCK OVER PANCAKES, BING CHERRY RELISH (I wanted a wild rice pancake, I have to see what the caterer's pancake is, he did not specify)

EGGPLANT CAVIAR ON TOASTED BAGUTTE

LAMB EMPANADA

SEARED BEEF FILET ON WHOLE GRAIN RUSK WITH RED ONION MARMALADE

PISTACHIO CRUSTED LAMB MEDALLION ON TOASTED BAGUETTE

SALMON TARTARE SERVED ON A FRIED LOTUS CHIP

My entree is going to be short ribs braised in red wine served over a celery root/potato puree.

I am still working on an appetizer. It cannot be too heavy, given the short rib entree. I was toying with the idea of sort of a mezze plate, long, rectangular white plate with three or four small offerings, I just have to think of which ones. I was also thinking of having small plates on the table of various things, sort of tapas style (roasted beets with fresh mint, fried baby artichokes, roasted cauliflower), I am not sure, still tinkering with that.

Desserts are a work in progress as well.

I do not know if anyone is actualy interested in all of this, but I will list my entire menu when it is complete and report back on how my tasting went for the things that I have settled on so far.

[rooftop1000]

Of course we are interested .....plus its my 5th anniversary

tracey