edenopolis

Chef Richard of Edenopolis richly deserves to be praised for all that he did before, during, and after our wedding reception to make it both beautiful and wonderfully tasty. This guy is truly the best--both as a human being and as a chef/caterer. My husband and I had decided at the beginning of the summer to get married without a ton of time to put together a reception, and we'd been scouring the Internet and canvassing friends to secure a caterer who would be able to prepare the sort of food that we wanted to serve--Moroccan and Colombian--without requiring a pirate's chest of gold doubloons as payment. We'd been to a couple tastings, and though the caterers in our price range were nice, their food was inconsistent and often not very carefully prepared: too salty, processed ingredients, uninspired. We'd sort of grown weary of the whole caterer search, despairing of ever finding someone good at a price we could afford, and Richard really turned everything around. He's just a very upbeat and funny and flexible sort of person. Part of the concern about the caterers that we'd been dealing with was that they really didn't know much about Colombian or Moroccan/Middle Eastern food. Chef Richard, on the other hand, is extremely well traveled--he's even lived in Morocco--and knows a ton about the different spices and ingredients that are used in cooking these cuisines. We were really impressed. I'll try to mention here all of the things that Chef Richard helped us with and took care of, but I'm sure to forget something because he really went far far above and beyond for us. His devotion to making sure that we had delicious, carefully prepared food to serve to our guests was unlike anything I've ever seen. He helped us to coordinate all of the serving staff using a staffing organization with which he has a long-standing relationship. He also put us in touch with his contact at a catering supply company, which was very helpful. He was very clear about what he would need, worked with us on our menu until it was exactly what we wanted, and prepared a delicious tasting menu for us in his home in Tribeca (all of the food was prepared and presented in the exact way that it would appear at the reception, which was helpful). In advance of the actual event, Chef Richard was in very good touch with us, which was a comfort. He also went out of his way to go to Azuri Cafe to get the pita for our reception! It was absolutely delicious, and well worth the effort!! He spent the week carefully preparing all of the empanadas and various other hors d'ouevres that we would be serving Saturday night. He doesn't make a huge deal about this, but it was important to us: he uses all organic and locally sourced meat and produce. The grass-fed beef he used for the grilled flank steak, for example, was just out of this world! On the actual day of the event, he and his staff were very prompt, and they whipped up an incredible feast. There were a selection of different appetizers during the cocktail hour, and then they set up the Colombian and Moroccan food stations in adjacent rooms. Everyone loved the food, and they were very vocal about this both that evening and in the days and weeks following the reception. Long story short, Chef Richard is a great guy and a superb chef. Having him as the caterer for our wedding reception was the most marvelous blessing. We were really lucky. I emphatically recommend him to others.

Before I found Richard, it looked like the completely vegetarian wedding my husband and I required, that would also please the pickiest eaters in our families would be impossible. Other caterers would ignore my request and send proposals with meat in them or consisted entirely of just pasta and rice dishes and nothing else. It was incredibly frustrating. Richard put together a menu of all of our favorite foods (from all around the world), plus special drinks to correspond with each dish. He was so easy and pleasant to work with. He has a very calm energy about him that is extra welcome on the day of a big event. Every email/call was answered promptly and every detail was explained to me in a way that was easy to process. The food was delicious, the picky eaters all found something that they enjoyed, plus our vegan friends were thrilled to have so many options as well. We did ran out of our favorite liquor at one point, but Richard and his team were very quick to troubleshoot and did a supply run in the middle of the wedding to fix the problem. I can't recommend Edenopolis enough, really!