Entry Seven - The International Caterers Association

ICA CATIES AWARD
Signature Caterer
Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23, 2012
350 Guests
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Synopsis
Combining the urban setting of a nightclub with juxtaposed stylings of an old fashioned butcher
shop offered 350 visiting Chefs a taste of the hipster culinary vibe currently flowing through Denver.
A food focused event, budget leaned towards menu leaving the design concept to represent
Colorado as the land of reduce, reuse and recycle. Shipping Palettes, Wine Barrels, Tin Cans,
Vegetable Crates and Old Newspapers were the Skin & Bones of decor with bold graphics and even
bolder entertainment adding flavor to the design menu. Guests were encouraged to “Drink Now &
Pork Later” during Live Hog Butchery from a suspended DJ Booth. Now that’s a PARTY!
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description
Skin & Bones the Concept:
A back to basics view of the culinary
fundamentals utilizing Local Colorado
Farms and Products
Featuring Protein Driven Stations:
Pork, Chicken, Beef & Fish
Highlighted with: Specialty Game
Meat Cocktails, Colorado MicroBrewed Beers, an Urban Garden &
Dessert Market Cart
Colored for Fun with:
Staff in Slogan T-Shirts, Butcher Gear
and Farm Wear
Entertainment Offered: On-site Hog
Butchering, DJ/Bluegrass Mash Up,
Farmer Percussionists, Beer Tub Girls &
Video Projections
In the urban setting of City Hall, a popular Denver nightclub, we offered the juxtaposed design styling
of old fashioned butcher shops, delicatessens, farmers markets & outdoor gardens. Our vision for
the evening was to invite the visiting Catering Chefs back to the basics of the kitchen but with an
elevated urban twist that is relevant in today’s cuisine and representative of our region.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Materials used to set the stage…
Stainless Steel Prep Tables | Hand Cranked Meat Slicers | Metro Racks
Butcher Paper| Butcher Block | Chalk Boards
Galvanized Tubs | Vintage Crates | Ball Jars
Chicken Wire | Tin Cans | Old Newspapers
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Typography, Logo & Graphics
A huge element to our design process was printed materials. Each element added to the old fashion
tone we wanted to set.
We were asked to create a Farm to Table event but feeling that culinary phrase to be overused we
reinvented the same principle with our Logo and Theme for the evening.
SKIN & BONES
Rocky Mountain Cuisine Elevated
This logo branded the entire event. Welcome sign, staff T-shirts, artwork & recipe cards.
Butchery Diagrams supported our concept and were used in wall projections, slide shows and menu
boards. On each station themed recipe cards of featured items were handed out for the Chefs to take
home with a QR code directing them to our company website for further information.
Each Station was manned by Chefs in HIP T-Shirt slogans attribute to the station they were assigned
Tattoos, Mustaches & Mutton Chops were encouraged to be showcased as our current urban hipster
nod to old fashioned butchery.
Shirt Slogans:
Bacon is the New Black, Meat to Please You, gut fish?, Chicken Chicharrrrrooonnneess…Say it Sexy!,
Real Men Eat Veggies, I like Pie & Drink NOW Pork Later.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Event Flow & Food Stations:
What Chef doesn’t like Bourbon, Beer & Meat?
Guests were greeted by a selection of Mixologist prepared Game-Meat-Jerky-Cocktails featuring
local Colorado Whiskey & Vodka. Our Drinking Game offered beverages titled Wing Sauced, Buffalo
Roam & Moscow Elk all featuring infusions or garnishes of meat, broth & bones. For additional social
lubricant with eye candy, farm girl beer tubs were spaced throughout the room offering a taste of
Local Micro-Brews. Decked in Daisy Dukes & Galoshes our “Broads serving Bottles” stepped in and
out of large galvanized tubs to retrieve beers.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Pork, the noun not the verb
This station was our intended show stopper. Food served across maple top prep tables with an
elaborate chalkboard menu design as backdrop. Elevated above the station was a Rock and Roll
Butcher tearing into not one but two whole hogs, portioning, wrapping and labeling in butcher
paper on a kitchen prep table with over head mirror. This was done for entertainment as opposed to
instruction and the Chefs received equal education as they did amusement.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Beef, it’s what’s for dinner
Our Beef Station reflected a delicatessen. A metro rack loaded with meats flanked by prep tables and
the Ferrari of kitchen equipment a bright red Berkal Hand Crank Slicer. This station offered food and
liquor pairings. Our Shandies/Sandies were presented in paper lined deli baskets with customized
logos on the beer bottles. Our Bone Marrow Whiskey Shooters were supported by a 6ft “How-to”
diagram hand drawn on Butcher Paper.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Chicken Chichaaaaaronnes… say it sexy!
Service of our Chicharrónes Biscuit and Gravy was backed by framed walls of chicken wire with
clothes-pinned period photos of roosters and chickens decorating it. Kitsch Chickens with egg filled
vintage baskets and apothecary jars added to our hen house.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Fish, just for the halibut
Our fish station, was backed by 10ft walls of tin can lids. With oversized utensils displayed on them
Local & sustainable Salmon Tenderloin & Smoked Trout were served in small sardine cans on glass
and acrylic risers giving imagery to water.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Eat Your Veggies
How do you get a meat loving crowd to eat their veggies? You make them look and taste good! This
station was supported by the urbanites answer to a vegetable garden. Large Shipping Palettes were
filled with fruiting vegetation. (Currently still alive and well at our commissary) Red Pepper Pasta was
served in miniature colanders with tidbit portions of Shisito Peppers, Truffle Corn Flan & Summer
Melon Greek Salad.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
Sweet Somethings, because everyone loves pie
An abundance of breads, pies, flavored popcorn, cookies and cakes were displayed on a farmer’s
market cart amongst buckets of flowers and tailor made signage. This station had one of our hot
tickets of the night, the miniature bacon sticky buns. Yeah, you read that right. Delicious!
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Description (continued)
That’s Entertainment!
Our main bar’s back wall hosted a slide show of butcher charts, meat ads and vintage photos of
butchers, fish mongers, chefs and farmers running throughout the night. Colorado savors its
bluegrass and in an effort to urbanize the music we created a DJ Bluegrass Mash-up, the first that we
know of. Our DJ, pedal steel and washboard players played in a living room setting in front of a
coffee stained newspaper pipe and drape treatment. Utilizing the view of the night air sky through
the venues retractable roof, an urban percussionist troupe dressed in overalls banged and tapped
their way down the rails starting on the third floor for a performance that kept the guest’s feet
stomping. A Live Chalk Artist created an onsite work of art which acted as an end of the night photo
op with metal mustaches on sticks used as guest’s props. And did we mention we butchered TWO
WHOLE HOGS????
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
What were the goals of this event and how were they met?
We were asked to create the inaugural opening night event for a brand new educational conference
for Catering Chefs. It was important to our client to provide new ideas and education within this
celebration that was representative of local cuisine and design flair.
Education:
Our menu was created around local farm products with a representative from the farms near-by
their designated stations with a large “ASK ME” button to engage with the Chefs. Every station
offered a recipe card for the Guests to take home and recreate in their own kitchens with a QR code
to take them to our Pinterest page for further instructions. We brought in a butcher who
demonstrated the butchering of two whole hogs.
A Taste of the Rockies:
From music to micro-brews we pulled in flavors from all over the state that welcomed the Chefs to
our Colorado Vibe. As a state well known for its commitment to the environment and recycling,
multiple elements of our design were essentially trash that was repurposed and re-imagined into a
vintage rustic feel you can find everywhere in the Mountains.
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
What noteworthy challenges arose, and how were they overcome?
Entertaining your peers in your industry is nerve wracking enough but to not know what your final
budget will be during the creation and design process proved to be our biggest challenge. All
revenue for this event was generated by ticket sales. We were given a projected number for what
that may have been but money needed to be spent well before tickets were even made available to
conference goers. With an understanding the majority of our money would go towards our menu
for this food focused event, our design had to be awful creative in cutting corners on expense.
Colorado is the land of reduce, reuse and recycle and that we did. We dumpster dove, answered free
ads on Craigslist, saved tin can lids and newspapers for months and transported our company
kitchen prep tables for stations and seating.
Also notable, we are a catering company that acquired a new team member in the role of Creative
Director this year. With her leadership, this was one of our companies first ever attempts at décor.
It took a lot to get everyone on the team sold that we could pull something like this off. The majority
of prep work on this event was created by just 3 people and the set up and break down was done
entirely by wait staff, use to only setting tables and clearing dishes. The event was such a company
success that the entire team burst into spontaneous celebration and applause for themselves. Every
head left that night held high!
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
How was the event unique, distinctive and professionally executed?
I’ve never been to a party where the main entertainment was the butchering of a hog, have you?
This feature was the most talked about long after the event and well deserved as our butcher was
quite the showman and also a member of the TAKE FIVE group recognizing the best Colorado has to
offer in the culinary profession. Timing and logistics make catering far different than restaurant
food. We challenged ourselves to change that frame of thinking by providing restaurant items in this
setting and then using our décor to draw focus and feature them. The Bone Luge was one of these
items and was created as highlight to our menu but also as a photo op for our guests. Bone Marrow
and whiskey shooters decorated a 5 tiered metro rack resting below a hand drawn diagram
instructing the guests to eat, get out their cameras and shoot! (The picture and the whiskey)
ICA CATIE AWARD
Signature Caterer Best Event
Skin & Bones
July 23rd, 2012 | 350 Guests
Vendor List
Rentals
303.972.0975 | Mike Wheeler | Event Rents
Entertainment & Production
303.750.6111 | Chris Starkey | Starkey Productions
720.231.6634 | Jen Mosquera | Chalkboard Artist
303.308.9300 ext 107 | Mark DeNittis | Butcher
Food & Beverage
303.522.6291 | Debbie Sears | Sysco
720.974.0552 |Matt Teufert | Coors
303.489.6668 |David Karsh | Restaurant Source
That’s All Folks…
Skin & Bones Menu
Featuring local Colorado Farms & Artisans
Welcome Specialty Drinks & Hors d’oeuvres
Drinking Game
Wing Sauced Breckenridge Vodka, chicken stock, carrot juice, bloody mary mix, lime juice, ginger
syrup & a dash of hot sauce … garnished with a salted chicken bone stir stick, celery curl & blue
cheese olive
Buffalo Roam Breckenridge Whiskey infused with House of Smoke buffalo jerky, Cointreau, honey
syrup & dash of whiskey bitters … garnished with a House of Smoke buffalo snack stick
Moscow Elk Breckenridge Vodka, Golden Colorado Ginger Beer, lime juice & mint … garnished with a
stack of ginger & lime seasoned elk jerkey, crystallized candied ginger & fresh mint …served in an
untraditional blue enamel mug
There’s an APP for that
Fried Salmon Cup with honey-smoked salmon celery slaw and vanilla beurre blanc
Fresh Guys Blossom Popper peppered ricotta–stuffed zucchini blossoms, fried with parmesan aioli
Duck Candy Bar with mole “chocolate” glaze and cilantro crème fraiche
Dinner Stations
Bacon Is the New Black
Continental Sweet Wild Boar Sausage with cranberries and apricots served with port wine Mustard
White Marble Farms Pork Belly Reuben with Austrian sauerkraut, horseradish havarti, sriracha aioli,
on Breadworks pumpernickel loaf
Anderson Meats Serrano Pork Crackling with blueberry pear butter
Meat to Please You
Sandies & Shandies
Custom Corned Beef Pastrami Sandy with fenugreek, edam, caramelized onions on Breadworks
roasted garlic baguette with sweet potato chips
Ginger Shandy Blue Moon Summer Wheat Ale & Golden Colorado Ginger Beer
Beef Short Rib Sandy with sautéed mushrooms, chipotle-smoked cheddar cheese on Breadworks
olive baguette with Truffle Yukon Chips
Red Beard Shandy 1554 Enlightened Black Ale with Lime Juice, Hot Sauce, Worcestershire & Black
Pepper
Bone Luge
Wild Wild West - Anderson Beef Bone Marrow bone marrow served on a smoked salt toasted
bread with a Breckenridge bourbon whiskey & cream soda shooter
gut fish? provided by Whole Foods
Farm-Raised Salmon Tenderloin with saffron aioli and leek confit
Colorado Smoked Trout with shaved fennel, grilled Colorado peaches, fine herbs & extra virgin olive
oil
Chicharronnnees… Say it Sexy
Chicharrónes Biscuit and Gravy cheddar chive biscuit stuffed with Red Bird Farms chicken, hatch
green chili gravy & a fried farm fresh egg
Real Men Eat Veggies provided by Fresh Guys
Pan-Fried Shishito Peppers with Jumping Good Goat cheese & sherry vinegar
Pappardelle’s Cayenne Ziti with yellow tomato vodka cream sauce, roasted grape tomatoes &
braised fennel
Truffle Corn Flan with lamb pancetta & avocado crudo
I like Pie provided by Italco
Bacon Sticky Buns
Ice Cream Sandwiches sweet potato Belgian waffle with sea salt caramel
Powdered Popcorn with white powder flavors of banana, nutella, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla,
peanut, & cherry
Assorted Colorado Cheese Display provided by Jumping Good Goat Dairy & Gourmet Foods
International