Culinary Excellence Catering

al who handled everything superbly. Communication was always easy, and the quality of service excellent. Samantha always put our desires and concern first and foremost. When our requested day-of schedule proved challenging, Samantha made it work, since she knew it was important to us. Multiple guests raved to us how great the food was--one middle-aged guest said it was the best wedding food they'd ever had! The vegan selections were excellent, especially the gnocchi. And you couldn't tell that the cake was vegan (which is high praise in my mind)! The price was competitive, and better than many other vendors. Overall, Culinary Excellence did a fantastic job, and the convenience of a coordinator + caterer wrapped into one is hard to beat.

amantha was also our coordinator and she helped keep things moving and was always so responsive and on top of managing things, like our decorations, for the day of. We had to adjust our location 6 months before the wedding due to COVID law changes, and they were willing to be flexible in moving the entire operation to a different city. They also provided linens, tables, and staff on the day of, and everything looked gorgeous and everyone was so kind and fun to work with. People at weddings don't usually mention the staff but guests at our wedding were constantly commenting on how well things were put together and how great all the staff was. I would absolutely use them for anything that requires catering in the future and would recommend them to anyone getting married in the Bay Area. I honestly don't think our day would have been as great without them.

nd had hired CE in 2019 after an excellent tasting. Then we postponed twice due to COVID and finally had the wedding this past weekend. The food is hands-down some of the best I've had ANYWHERE. Without question, best food out of all weddings I've been to, including weddings at 5-star hotels. We had hand-passed appetizers for the cocktail hour and for the reception, plated meals--salad then for the main course, choice of beef filet, salmon, and veggie lasagna. All our guests seriously gushed about the food AND the beautiful presentation. For this alone, you should hire CE for your event. Jessica packed us two extra meals to enjoy the next day, which was such a sweet touch, and we had them for breakfast. If I could eat CE's food every day I would. What makes CE more special is the service and thoughtfulness. We communicated with Jessica for the past 3 years and she has been so understanding and patient through all the postponements and changes we had to make. Having the wedding hang over our head all these years is stressful, but trying to make it happen during a pandemic / new variant surge is truly the worst experience. Jessica was so accommodating, responsive, and kind, despite a million emails I sent her about every little thing. The fact that the CE staff were all masked and honored our request to self-test prior to the wedding (we provided the rapid tests) alleviated our stress about COVID greatly. It's been almost a week and luckily nobody got sick (we and all guests tested too). Plus, CE has a lot of other services and rentals: decor, florals, day-of coordination, furniture, etc. We got parasols, cocktail tables, table runners, and candles from them and thought the prices for all very affordable (our day-of coordinator agreed). In fact, the pricing for everything is really reasonable, especially considering the above-and-beyond service and food. There is absolutely, absolutely no reason to hesitate hiring CE. I cannot recommend them strongly enough. If I had to do any event in the Bay again, they'd be the first one for me to reach out to. Thank you so much, CE. You spread so much joy with your help and expertise!

ade the call to resume wedding planning. Working with Samantha was truly wonderful - she's on top of things and really made sure the day went as smoothly as possible. We used Culinary Excellence for just about everything we could - food, decor, day of coordination, floral and our wedding cake. Everything came out beatifully and the food was so good. Highly recommend them!

ou could possibly need for rental at a very reasonable cost. And most importantly the food was delicious - we received many compliments from our guests. We worked with Jessica Murphy, Senior Event Coordinator - she is AMAZING! Jessica is professional, responsive, efficient and wonderful to work with. She worked with us to keep our needs within budget, made the most beautiful floral bouquets and provided day-of coordination help which kept things moving to keep within our venue timeline. I don't know how we would have gotten through the stress of a COVID wedding without her.

ng. Samantha was so great to work with. She was our primary contact point and our day of coordinator. She really helped us stay on task during the wedding and helped as we planned. We had booked them pre COVID and there were lots of changes along the way, but they were very flexible during all the up and downs and reassuring as we went. I would highly recommend them for your wedding!

ing was still prohibited, we needed to come up with a safe alternative for the reception. With a month notice, we decided to shift the reception location to the backyard, and with the help of Culinary Excellence (CE), we were able to make it happen and in the safest manner possible. Jessica is so good at what she does. She visited the backyard and helped us conceptualize where everything could go. Jessica is a dream to work with. She is so responsive and suggested ways to make the event comfortable and safer for all. CE is a one stop shop—they provided us with all different sizes of tables to accommodate different size social bubbles, chairs, linens, lighting, AV equipment, and of course the most AMAZING food EVER! Chefs Christian and Chris can cook! CE has a super extensive menu and our guests were raving about the food for days! They even have delicious prepared meals that can be delivered to your home twice a week. The entire CE team from delivery to set up to take down followed all COVID precautions. Thank you Jessica and Culinary Excellence for making our kids’ dreams into a reality. :)

f videography but having worked at many weddings I can say whatever the costs are for Jessica and her team is well worth it. -Jay, 4KLove Films

. It was a very new experience as we've never planned any kind of party, but Samantha was a great great help. Unfortunately, we had to make the tough choice to cancel our wedding due to covid as we had a late summer 2020 wedding scheduled. But the good news is that Samantha, Jessica, and the whole Culinary Excellence crew were wonderfully understanding on a human level. None of this is any of our faults. We're all in a bad situation trying to make the most of it. They gave us support and understanding, and once things are more safe, we wouldn't hesitate to contact the CE family for another event! Oh, also the food is really delicious and perfectly cooked. I didn't think caterers could be so good!

nce during our wedding at the Brazilian Room in Berkeley. Guests were raving so much about the food!! The avocado toast, sliders, salad, salmon, chicken, veggies, steak, donuts, and BISCUITS. Omg those biscuits were a HIT. My husband and I are still dreaming of them. We can’t thank them enough. Everyone said so many good things and left with full bellies.

t in my mind from our first interaction to my big day she had our best interest at heart! I can’t forget to acknowledge the entire Culinary Excellence team for all their hard work and supportive culture! Id love to use them when I have another big event! Hugs 🥳

elle changes the month before our event, Jessica and Christian wiped away any concerns that popped up. It’s been a few weeks and we STILL have people telling us how much they loved the food! Even the pickiest of people that we were worried about have said its better than most restaurants they’ve been to. Looking forward to our anniversary cake and to finding an excuse to work with them again!!

d up letting us know that she had coordination services as well. Throughout the wedding planning process, she was extremely flexible in letting us pick the flatware, silverware, decorations, flow of events, food, and everything in between. When we got stressed, she said she would take care of all the little things. When it got to the day of the wedding, things were going extremely smooth off the bat. The mingling and ceremony went without a hitch with Jessica coordinating the ceremony and the bridal party. About most of the way through wedding photos, my wife and I found out that the power had completely gone out throughout our venue. Jessica was right there to come up with a plan B, C, D, and more. She went above and beyond to try to mitigate and adjust and even made sure my wife and I were fed while reassuring us that the event would be memorable. In the end, the power came back on and the wedding was incredibly sweet. A huge thanks is owed to Jessica, the amazing folks at Culinary Excellence, and the effort demonstrated by everyone involved in putting our wedding together. We would give Jessica 14 out of 5 stars if we could, but since The Knot only goes until 5, that's what we're putting down!

d emails from Jessica, I never felt alone in the process. At the venue, watching Jessica delegate and her staff’s response and respect shows me she knows what she’s doing and how to do it right! We ended up having a better time than we could’ve ever hoped for.

ughtful responses to my questions. Since they are a full-service company, we asked Jess to help plan and coordinate the party for us and she did a masterful job. I didn't worry about a thing because I knew we were in good hands. Jess handled everything for us: set-up and coordination (basically flawless), decorations (perfect), and the flowers (stunning!) In addition to being so good at her job, Jess is also a lot of fun to work with and a really delightful person. And the food! Wow! We had passed appetizers, three food stations, a dessert station, and everything was delicious. (We also had a full service bar.) Some of the food favorites were the tomato soup "shots" with grilled cheese sandwich bites; beef sliders; the pasta bar with meatballs; and the highlight was the doughnut wall and mini dessert bar. It was a wonderful evening, and we're still getting compliments from our guests. We couldn't have been happier with Jess and Culinary Excellence, and I highly recommend them. Hurry and book them for your big day!

essica Murphy was my sanity in the last few weeks, her energy and thoughtfulness are a winning combination for getting everything done with style and a smile. She truly is talented at this. They were a wonderful vendor to work with. When I didn't know what to do they came in with great ideas, like dessert - we knew we didn't want cake but weren't sure what would replace dessert - together we came up with a cookie bar and we got to choose 5 different flavors of cookies, they even made one special that I asked for even though they'd never made it before (I got to taste it at our dessert tasting). Everyone was talking about how delicious the food was and loved the cookie bar. Another example of their amazing service is I wanted to surprise my now husband with a popcorn machine - because he doesn't really like sweets. Jess went above and beyond to make sure the surprise was never spoiled. They really are the best. My only regret is that they don't have a restaurant for us to enjoy the food all over again :)

ations, Jess is simply a rockstar. You will be in exceptional hands if you go with Culinary Excellence!

. I contacted 4 of the preferred vendors and Jessica was the quickest to response and more detailed oriented. I knew I can trust Jessica right from the beginning. In addition to doing a food tasting with Chris, I asked Jessica to quote me for the decorations. I think it's amazing that you can do everything with one company. I had set up two tastings, one with Culinary Excellence and the other with a Asian Fusion caterer. At the end of the tasting, we decided to pick the Asian caterer because it better fit my family wants but let me tell you that Culinary Excellence food is top notch. My husband and I still talk about the salmon from the tasting. Everything was beautifully presented and food was very very good. Even not going with the food, I asked if Jessica would be willing to still do the decorating. It was history from there. I spent over a year planning my dream wedding with Jessica. Come the week of the wedding, the weather says it would rain on our outdoor wedding. Jessica kept me calm throughout the process and supported me like a friend. 3 days before the wedding, we decided to change our wedding to Mission Paradise Banquet Hall 30 mins drive away from Preservation Park. Jessica was in vacation the day I made that decision and still made sure to call me that night to talk through the changes. With 3 days to go, she pulled her team together and put together the weddings of my dream. The guests still wonder how we pulled it out.. well I say a big part of it is Jessica and her team. There are a few things to note that made Jessica and her team stand out. My guests raved about the Culinary Excellence team during has after my wedding. 1) my family never seen table greetings so efficient before! We got through 30 tables in 30-40 mins or so 2) the timeline was spot on and perfect 3) Jessica made sure my husband and I stayed hydrated all night. Everytime I turned she had two cups of water in her hand for us to drink 4) they pulled out all my decorations in the new venue. My guests are still talking about how beautiful the wedding was! 5) set up the tea ceremony at my home the day before Again, if I had a choice to go back and pick another company or coordinator.. I would not. I don't think I would of received the same service if I went elsewhere. Thank you for the bottom of my heart and my family for all you and the team did!

us, our friends, and our family. On the day of, the team was friendly and took great care to make sure the venue looked beautiful. We never had to ask for service or wait for basic needs. They went above and beyond to ensure that our guests had what they needed. Jess, our Day-Of Coordinator, was absolutely phenomenal. Seriously. I have been a wedding/event planner and coordinator for years, and I can say honestly that she is the best of the best. She has a high attention to detail, a kind and fun demeanor, an immense amount of knowledge about the industry, the venue, and her team. I always felt incredibly supported and cared about. She was quick to respond via email when she could, and it is so clear that she invests time, energy, and effort into every event that she oversees. She is a true professional, and I could never share enough to feel like I've adequately explained what a treasure she is. If I could offer one piece of advice to brides, add the day-of coordination package on for your event. You won't regret it - worth every penny and more. Lastly, the FOOD. The team absolutely knocked it out of the park. The food was delicious at the tasting, and even more delicious at the wedding itself. It was presented beautifully, had great flavor, and the family style dinner service was executed perfectly. One of the most special parts of our wedding was that the chef at CE was able to recreate a treasured family recipe for a groom's cake, and it tasted exactly like his grandmother's would have. It was a perfect surprise and so unique. We can't thank Culinary Excellence and Jess enough for what they contributed for our wedding day. I could continue on and on about their fantastic service, professionalism, and care. They are the best of the best, and we would recommend them time and time again!

l flower arrangements. They communicated with us every step of the way and on the day of, they were on top of their game. No detail was overlooked and we didn't have to do a thing the day of our wedding. Professional with a capital P! We are so happy with the work they did! Highly recommend.

and our families were not stressed out on the day of the wedding thanks to Jessica and her staff. Everything was executed wonderfully: the food was outstanding, the decorations were wonderful, and she kept to the timeline! I would recommend her without hesitation!

and cake. All of it was fabulous. They were professional, caring, and attentive throughout the whole process. Chris is a wedding pro and truly does whatever it takes to make your wedding perfect. Before the ceremony he checked in on us and brought us water and even thought to bring me a straw so I wouldn't mess up my lipstick! So many people commented that the food was the best they ever had at a wedding- and we agree! It was beautiful, fresh, and delicious. The Culinary Excellence team took the stress out of wedding planning and the wedding day and allowed us to be present and truly enjoy our wedding. Hire them- you won't be disappointed!

n of compliments on the food (we decided to switch it up and had a fajita bar). And the cake turned out so beautiful, it exceeded all of my expectations. Culinary Excellence is a one stop shop - they were able to provide everything from table linens to bistro lighting to miscellaneous items to rent. They totally transformed the venue and made it look so beautiful. I highly recommend their day of coordinator service. It was so nice to not have to worry about getting my personalized items there. Tracy and her team took care of everything and it turned out perfect. Huge kudos and thank you to Tracy and the rest of the CE team -- I highly recommend working with them!!

printed materials, cake, and so much more. They truly are a one stop shop, there isn't anything they can not do. To say I had a specific vision would be an understatement for sure, and they exceeded all of my expectations, and were so kind and helpful, and reassuring through it all. Weddings are stressful enough, it was wonderful to not have to worry about anything and to know I was in amazing hands, and everything I needed was going to get done. From the moment we had our tasting, through our the planning process, and to the rehearsal dinner (that's right they designed that as well!!) everything was spectacular. I am still waiting on photos, but I am eager to share them with everyone, as it was truly a stunning amazing day. I will definitely be recommending them to everyone I know who is having any kind of event, and you would be well deserved to pick them to make your next event amazing!