Bon Soir Caterers | New York Caterers - Archive

Summer Dessert Advice

Contrary to common sense–the sense in question being taste–there are people who will, under certain circumstances, decline dessert. Picture a summer Brooklyn wedding in an outdoor venue: how many guests will have the endurance to stomach a dense cake after so many courses? Yet what’s a wedding without a cake?

Fortunately, not all cakes are created equal, and the same goes for pie, ice cream, pastries, and so on. While everyone loves a decadent dessert, it’s getting a bit warm for extravagance. Expert NYC caterers such as ourselves know full well that a light fruit pie can be just as satisfying as your average bacon-infused Lower East Side sundae.

A few rules of thumb for summer desserts:

Don’t be afraid of fruit: Yes, healthy can be good, too. Few things combat humidity better than a slice of fresh peach cobbler topped with a perspiring dollop of whipped cream. Similarly, strawberries and pineapples dipped in chocolate will blend nicely with the characteristic intensity of chocolate. Which brings us to our next rule…
Chocolate should compliment, not dominate: Chocolate can truly complete a dessert, but it shouldn’t be the complete dessert–during the summer, that is. Just consider the chips in a chocolate chip cookie, little treasures of moist sweetness buried in a beach of baked dough.
We all scream for ice cream: We really do. Our ice cream sundae bars are always a hit; give us a spin at your next event and craft your own masterful dessert.

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Shrimp Season for New York Caterers

Shrimp fishing season officially came to an end Friday April, 12 at 11:59 p.m. in New England. Chances are this will yield some excellent shrimp for our New York catering events in the next few weeks, just in time for the busiest wedding season.

Not surprisingly, shrimp are an integral part of New York catering for a wide array of events. Even though a wide array of folks balk at the idea of eating a delicious piece of salmon or flounder as being “too fishy,” they leap at the opportunity for fresh grilled shrimp. For one reason or another, the taste is simply more universally appealing than a lot of other seafood.

At Bon Soir Caterers, we use shrimp in so many of our favorite menu items. Our sautéed station offers bay shrimp prepared lovingly by our chefs in Mandarin woks, the results are delicious. There are also our shrimp dumplings, a part of our increasingly popular dim sum station. Then there is our raw seafood bar which includes jumbo shrimp.

While the nearby New England shrimping season is over, our chefs receive fresh shrimp from a number of regions to keep up with demand throughout the year. There might be nothing better for catering in New York than some fresh shrimp.

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Salads for a Lite Lunch

April 15th, 2013 | Posted by TimD in Event Catering | Food Tips | New York Event Catering | NY Catering - (0 Comments)

“The Lite Luncheon” is a relatively new phenomena. In the past, rural workers would eat their largest meal, then called dinner, in the middle of the day. As things changed and people left the farms en mass, so too did our eating habits. These days around the corporate world, there is a clear sense that a heavy lunch is probably a recipe for a sluggish and unproductive afternoon.

This is why corporate catering in New York has gone the way of the lite lunch. Salads have, for many of us, taken the hallowed place that sandwiches once occupied in our days. Reducing carbs is something that is encouraged by a wide array of medical professionals and nutritionists–doing so with the help of fresh vegetables is the way all of these parties suggest to do it.

For some of us, eliminating carbohydrates all together is not really an option or at least, it does not feel like much of one. There are lite lunch options for us as well. There are delicious pasta salads that can be healthier than eating a hero, even though they have some of the starch and carbs others are trying to avoid.

No matter what your relationship to carbohydrates happens to be, Bon Soir Caterers has a New York catering option that is right for your next lunch.

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Sandwich Science from the Finest Caterers in New York

April 8th, 2013 | Posted by TimD in Event Catering | Food Tips | New York Event Catering | NY Catering - (0 Comments)

Our New York catering services for a simple lunch are something we take a lot of pride in. We have a stellar selection of sandwich options, and we take as much pride in our sandwich preparation as in our larger full service menu items.

A somewhat vexing question sometimes asked of sandwiches is, “Why do sandwiches made by other people always taste better?”

We can tell you right now that our sandwiches are made from high quality meats, cheeses, breads and other fixings. We can tell you that our chefs are experts who know how to design a sandwich menu sure to marvel taste buds. These things would be true, but science has done studies that suggest those are not the actual reasons our New York catering sandwiches are better than a sandwich you might make at home with the same ingredients.

It is all about anticipation. When making a sandwich and layering the individual ingredients, you are considering fully how each will taste. By the time you bite into your sandwich, you have already envisioned the experience of eating it. A sandwich made by someone else is a clean slate, ready to be experienced in the moment.

That is the science of sandwiches!

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Rest Your Meat

March 25th, 2013 | Posted by TimD in Food Tips | NY Catering - (0 Comments)

One of the benefits of a solid New York caterer is simply not having to understand the intricacies of what can make your food substantially better. We here at Bon Soir Caterers know what is right for your food, and we know how to prepare it. Our staff has extensive knowledge of every cuisine we make.

Of course you will likely not always have a caterer in New York around when you prepare meals at home, so we are happy to share some hints to help you in your own kitchen.

As our stellar barbecue menu and several of our entrees suggest, we know meat. Slicing it is an art, and there are a few steps you can take to make the whole process easier and better.

Resting your meat after taking it off the grill is a good way to trap in juices that might otherwise spill out onto your cutting board. As you cook meat, juices concentrate around the center of the piece. When you slice too soon, some of that juice is bound to spill out. Allowing it to rest gives the juice a chance to make it to the edges of the meat.

Over the coming weeks we will offer more tips on meat and other foods that you can take home.

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Quality Assurance From Catering in NYC

March 18th, 2013 | Posted by TimD in Event Catering | New York Event Catering | New York Weddings | NY Catering - (0 Comments)

Our Full Service Catering In NYC page has a line that we think really captures how we feel about our position at any event.

“For over three decades, it has been our pleasure to have worked alongside our clients as we bring their “vision” to reality.”

We understand that whether it be a corporate mixer or the bonding of you and the love of your life in holy matrimony, you want everything to be perfect. You have spent time considering exactly how each element of the festivities should proceed. You know what food you want, what music should be playing, who you want to be there and where they should be seated. The word vision is not used loosely here. We do not take this position lightly.

If you hire Bon Soir Caterers to handle your event, we will be at your disposal from day one until your event is through. We will assure the highest and most esteemed New York catering available. No two customers are the same, and we intend to give you and your event the unique focus that it, and you, deserves.

Quality assurance are not just words on a website. Call us today to discuss your event.

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Treating Your Special Day with Care

For many brides and grooms, the wedding is about aesthetics. You want everything to look just right and everything to feel just so. Even the least controlling among us can develop some slight obsessive compulsions when plotting out a wedding.

It is with this sentiment in mind that our experts, at both preparing and presenting food, approach any wedding that books our top-to-bottom New York catering services. As the spring and summer approach, so too does a world of weddings. Far too often over extended amateurish catering operations become real obstacles in preparing for a wedding. The stress from an under prepared service you have hired, for what feels like the most important day of your life, is absolutely inexcusable.

We at Bon Soir Caterers have a great reputation of laying out stellar spreads for New York and Brooklyn catering events of all shapes and sizes. As a result, our staff know exactly how to let your event go off without a hitch from us. We are here to help and make the most out of your time with us.

If you want a delectable spread presented to the exact specification of your standards, then we are the right choice for your special day.

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Networking Over New York Catering

March 4th, 2013 | Posted by TimD in Event Catering | New York Event Catering | NY Catering - (0 Comments)

New York catering companies are accustomed to business meetings and networking events. Whether you are a fashion house meeting in SoHo, a gigantic banking institution near Wall Street or an Internet startup DUMBO, Brooklyn catering companies throughout the city are ready to help make your corporate meet and greets delicious affairs.

If you are having an evening meet and greet, it is customary to offer some hot food for dinner. A sit down meal, however, will be stifling to your eager networkers, or your eager networkers might confuse you for the wait staff. A hot buffet is the best bet for giving your guests and employees a chance to move around the room and mingle. While a young go-getter is digging into the calamari, he is likely standing next to, and hopefully communicating with, an inventive entrepreneur with a great idea and a need for some new employees.

Allowing people at a networking event to serve themselves will ensure a maximum amount of communication. This is the entire point of a networking event, which would otherwise be a stuffy and unpleasant bit of business. Check out our Hot Buffet menu for your next corporate event; there is something for everyone, and what is better to bond over than food?

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Plate Arrangements and NYC Caterers

On a day-to-day basis we might rarely, if ever, think about the layout of our food when preparing meals. Especially in our get up and go era, it is hard to take the time and care to truly think about the presentation of food. This is just one more reason why many of us love going out for dinner. On top of high quality food, meals simply look nicer.

When planning for a New York catering event, the question of presentation comes up early in the plans. You have to make a call between the two primary options of event catering: buffet style or full service. Buffet style is of course the way a lot of us go. The convenience of everyone lining up and enjoying as much food as they want is a great way to ensure everyone leaves happy. That said, full service and the charm of having a chef actually decide on a stylish arrangement of your plate is one of the potential charms of a high quality NYC caterer.

Chefs go to school and are trained in making arrangements that make sense, both in their colors and flavors. The difference between a trained plate layout and an untrained one is apparent as soon as a meal is placed in front of you.

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Seafood Paella for Catering in Brooklyn

February 18th, 2013 | Posted by TimD in Event Catering | New York Event Catering | New York Weddings | NY Catering - (0 Comments)

Bon Soir Caterers have one of the best selections of hot buffet items in all of New York catering. Each dish is prepared with an attentive focus on its traditions while also making it taste as stellar as possible for modern pallets.

One of the more striking hot buffet options is our paella. The combination of Spanish emigration and easy access to delicious shellfish makes the American Northeast an ideal place for amazing paella. We have a deep understanding of the right mixture of spices and flavors. We cook rice, not nearly as simple a task as some consider it, perfectly. And we seek out the best shellfish our convenient port town has to offer. If you are looking for a different spin on your catering in Brooklyn, our paella is a great place to start.

Paella, in its modern form at least, is a dish that started in Valencia, Spain in the mid-19th century. Seafood paella is a distinct strain of paella in that it tends to incorporate a wide variety of shellfish, from muscles and shrimp to crab and lobster when available. It is a distinct spice that makes paella such a special meal. Served buffet style, the rice and fish dish is sure to fill up and satisfy guests.

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