4.9 out of 5 stars and 38 reviews
4.9
(38)We service all areas! Let us know where you will be
About this vendor
Based out of Oakland, CA, Culinary Excellence is a catering business that serves weddings in the Golden State and beyond. Using locally sourced ingredients to create delicious meals, their culinary team boasts decades of combined experience. They will work with you to develop a mouth-watering menu that features a selection of your best-loved dishes.
Jessica Murphy, Culinary Excellence's coordinator, has been involved in the business for years. She and the team delight in helping couples and their loved ones celebrate their milestone occasions. Soon-to-be newlyweds are sure to be impressed by the business' eclectic repertoire of dishes. Their menu is inspired by a range of cuisines, including Indian, French, Italian, and Spanish.
Culinary Excellence can provide delivery and setup services, leaving you to enjoy your big day without any worries. Buffets, family-style meals, and plated dinners are just a few of the available dining options. Once your meal is cooked, it will be served by their impeccable serving wait staff. Eager to clients with a one-stop shop for all of their wedding day needs, the business also offers planning, floral design, and lighting services.
Details
Business Attributes
- LGBTQ+-owned Business
Cuisine
- American
- BBQ
- Chinese
- French
- Fusion
- Greek
Dietary Options
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Halal
- Kosher
- Nut Free
- Organic
Food & Catering
- Buffet
- Catering Delivery & Setup
- Chef Stations
- Family Style
- Menu Tastings
- Passed Appetizers
Awards and Affiliations
3-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2024.2021.2020.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Popular with couples like you
Check out our featured vendors.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
4.9
out of 5.038 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 9
We are so impressed with Culinary Excellence! Not only was all of the food delicious, but all of the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, too. Special thank you to Samantha w...
ho helped us coordinate our wedding! She was an absolutely rockstar and kept everything on track. She’s also super nice and easy to work with.
Overall, we had a great experience with them. The table settings and centerpieces they came up with were amazing, and so was their lighting! They were super organized, and everything turned out beautiful. Also, the food was so good (I highly recommend the chocolate fountains)!
Culinary Excellence was my favorite wedding vendor! Samantha and Jessica were so wonderful to work with. They are super organized and responsive and it was really fun to meet them ...
during our menu tasting. I’m so glad our venue had them on their preferred list because we were able to combine catering, wedding cake, florals and rentals with them and they offered a bundling discount. We sent them pictures of what we wanted and they brought it to life on our special day.
Lets start with the good:
The staff that ran everything was good. The coordinator we worked with, Sierra, was great. The table settings were good and the cocktail hour food was goo...
d. The food at the tasting was very good.
The bad:
The dinner food served at the tasting did not in any way match the food that was served at the event. I have spoken to many people on both sides of the wedding and everyone has said the food was terrible. The food was embarrassingly bad. I did not want to eat it, we had many very upset family members complain about how bad it was. These same family members went to the tasting and signed off on how the food was prepared. We have contacted them regarding this and they claim the food was of the same quality that was served at the tasting. Something that has been refuted by everyone I’ve spoken to about the food at the wedding. This has been frustrating as we were let down on our wedding day and the caterer refused to even acknowledged this at all.
Summary:
They bait and switched us regarding the food quality. I do not recommend them as a result.
Finally, after 3.5 long years...
Where do we begin? We met the extraordinary team of Jessica and Chris at an open house in the Brazilian Room back in 2019 for an April 2020 weddin...
g. And then the pandemic hit. Little did we know we’d wait THREE and a half long years to finally have the event, and it was so perfect, I don’t think we could have done it without them. I especially developed a close relationship with Jess as she is my sister witch (we are both Potterheads) and I am convinced she has magical powers.
Firstly, the food. CE was an excellent partner in making our vision come to life. Food was my number one priority, so it was key to have a vendor that excelled in this. Since we were going to have a daytime wedding, we worked together to create a great brunch menu. Chris knocked it out of the park and made this flavorful, juicy, crunchy, bone-in, non-greasy fried chicken, and delicious waffles with freshly made pumpkin butter–perfect for the fall! We also had a tater tot bar, a mimosa bar, their delicious red banana and papaya salad, and many more. The passed hors d’oeuvres were *outstanding,* too. My guests continue to rave about the food to this day.
Second, the decor and coordination. Honestly, if we had the budget, I would have let Jess handle everything from wedding prep. But because we didn’t, we did the day-of ala carte service where Jess would handle our day-of vendor coordination and make sure everything ran on time. I highly recommend getting CE to coordinate for you. If Jess had a magic wand, it would be a maestro’s baton, because she orchestrated everything for us from the ceremony to the very end and I didn’t have to worry about a thing. She is worth her weight in gold. For our prep, Jess provided me with honest feedback on the best ways to do things on a budget, answered all of my questions, and made a comfortable space in which I could provide feedback, too. In the end, everything was set up so beautifully and exceeded my expectations. Despite my one priority being food, the setup and decorations were simply stunning, especially considering our budget.
Thirdly, I have to sing (more) praises about Jess. Her years of experience shone and it was fantastic seeing her in her element the day of the wedding. But more than that, she’s become my friend. Not only did she earn our trust during the process, but she went above and beyond in working with us to achieve a perfect day for our family and friends. CE will now be my local go-to for any catering needs or milestone celebrations.
Should you (be fortunate enough to) work with them, my advice is to make sure to give them honest feedback as early as possible, ask for *their* feedback and approach it like a collaborative partnership, ask as many questions as you need to, and trust the process. They know what they’re doing.
They did an outstanding job for our wedding and I could not recommend them more. The food was incredible, the florals were gorgeous, everything ran sooo smoothly with the help of o...
ur coordinator, and all of the staff were so polite, friendly, and professional. I am so glad we went with Culinary Excellence, I wasn't stressed leading up to the wedding because I knew we were in good hands. Our coordinator really went above and beyond also to follow the natural dynamics of the party and make adjustments to what we had planned on the fly. They really helped to make our wedding so special, memorable, and warm.
Culinary Excellence was such a dream to work with. They were able to help us come to fruition what we wanted to see at our wedding venue. Since Brazilian Room requires an approved ...
caterer, luckily Culinary Excellence was one. The food, drinks and all were taken care of and the staff was warm. Shout out to Sierra who was helpful, insightful and willing to be real with how things flow at Brazilian Room. They were great! Loved working with them! Definitely recommend.
Culinary excellence was fantastic!!! We got married at the Brazilian Room, and we worked with Samantha (our day-of coordinator), who made everything so easy and was very kind. Sama...
ntha was great about promptly responding to emails, and we had several calls to iron out details, and everything flowed extremely smoothly on the day of the wedding. She had many useful tips from all the weddings she'd helped with at the Brazilian room, and she was great at helping us plan the wedding we wanted. The food was amazing -- we loved their salad and pesto pasta, and their hors d'oeuvres were delicious. I highly, highly recommend Samantha and culinary excellence!
The culinary excellence was one of the vendors off the approved caterer list for my venue but I would have chosen them even if my venue didn’t required an approved vendor! Sierra w...
as excellent with communication, very thorough and answering/accommodating my questions, and the planning was transparent the whole time. They knew exactly what to do and I loved that they were all in one vendor, meaning I could ask for the welcome table decorations, seating chart, and lighting without hiring a separate vendor. We had guests with many dietary restrictions and CE had a lot of options to choose from and made sure to label them for the guests, which we really appreciated it!
I would highly recommend Culinary Excellence for any event, big or small. They provided excellent service from start to finish, and their food was delicious.
I first contacted Cul...
inary Excellence to inquire about catering for my wedding. I was immediately impressed with their professionalism and attention to detail. They took the time to understand my vision for the event and then created a custom menu that was both delicious and visually appealing.
In addition to catering, Culinary Excellence also provided flowers, table settings, and a cake for my wedding. Everything was beautiful and coordinated perfectly. I couldn't have been happier with the way everything turned out.
On the day of the event, the Culinary Excellence staff was on time and ready to go. They were friendly and helpful, and they made sure that everything ran smoothly. The food was served hot and fresh, and it was all delicious. My guests raved about the food, and I received many compliments on the overall presentation.
I would not hesitate to use Culinary Excellence again for any future events. They are a great company with a team of talented and experienced professionals. I highly recommend them!
Here are some specific examples of the great service that Culinary Excellence provided:
The catering staff was very accommodating and went above and beyond to make sure that my guests were happy. They were constantly checking to see if anyone needed anything, and they were always willing to make suggestions.
The flowers were absolutely stunning. They were exactly what I had envisioned, and they added a touch of elegance to my wedding.
The table settings were beautiful and coordinated perfectly with the flowers. They really set the tone for the event.
The cake was delicious and beautifully decorated. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.
I would highly recommend Culinary Excellence to anyone planning an event. They are a great company with a team of talented and experienced professionals. I highly recommend them!
From start to finish, Culinary Excellence was incredible. Samantha was our point of contact for catering and coordination services (including venue management) for our late 2022 w...
edding at The Brazilian Room. She is a super-friendly professional 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.
They were absolutely essential in making our wedding day perfect! They worked with us to create a custom menu inspired by some of their classics but with a southern/Cajun twist. Th...
e food was amazing and everyone raved about it at the wedding. Samantha 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.
Our 60-person wedding was catered by Culinary Excellence. My husband and I cannot express our appreciation enough. Hiring CE was one of the best decisions we made in planning the w...
edding.
We were originally going to hold our wedding in 2020 and 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!
We had such a great experience with Culinary Excellence! Like many other couples, we were impacted by COVID and had to post pone our wedding more than a year. Our original plans we...
re cancelled and we were starting from scratch when we finally made 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!
We cannot recommend Culinary Excellence more! I intentionally left "Catering" off that last sentence because they are so much more than just a catering company. For starters, they ...
include linens for NO additional cost. They have anything else you 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.
We were so glad that we chose to work with Culinary Excellence. The food was amazing and all of our guests commented on how delicious the appetizers and food were. We also had them...
supply some of our furniture and beautiful drapes for the wedding. 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!
Culinary Excellence was an absolute godsend for us when my daughter and her now husband were insistent on getting married a few weeks ago…in the middle of a global pandemic. We ha...
d the ceremony covered, as it was outdoors, but since indoor dining 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. :)
I have had the pleasure of working as a wedding videographer for clients of Jessica's and Culinary Excellence at multiple weddings. These weddings always run the smoothest and turn...
out the best. I don't know much about how things work outside of 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
Jessica and Samantha were both a joy to work with. Samantha was our primary contact and planner, helping us make all the tough decisions like, should we have a charger (i think tha...
t's what it's called) or what kind of flower arrangements to get. 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!
Culinary Excellence handled catering services for our wedding in Piedmont, CA in October of 2019. They were not only professional but the food was absolutely delicious! I would rec...
ommend them hands down.
From beginning to end, Jessica was a pleasure to work with. She was on top of everything we requested and was thoroughly organized.
She, Chris (the head chef), and the lovely staf...
f helped put together the most amazing and unforgettable experience 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.
We couldn’t have asked for a better experience! Jessica was such a huge help every step of the way. I had so many questions and she provided answers and suggestions in a profession...
al manner. She was responsive and encouraging! There was no doubt 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 🥳
We could not be happier to have worked with Culinary Excellence for our wedding! Christian and Jessica were both an absolute pleasure to work with and did an incredible job working...
with what little direction we gave them. Even with some personnelle 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!!
From beginning to end, Jessica from Culinary Excellence was a true professional. We originally contacted the company for a catering quote for our September wedding of 150 people. J...
essica was so engaging and helpful on the original call and ended 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!
I think we all know that planning any kind of party let alone a wedding is a task! But when my time came, I knew I was in the right hands with Jessica and Chris. From creating a pe...
rsonal menu (German and Indian food) to the regular check-ins and 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.
My husband and I were absolutely thrilled with Jessica and her team at Culinary Excellence, and I know you will be, too. They are listed as a preferred vendor at the Log Cabin in ...
San Francisco, and I chose them based on Jessica's quick and thoughtful 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!
The dream team!!! Without CE our wedding would never have happened! One stop shopping made everything so easy for me as a bride with the majority of planning in my hands. They did ...
all our catering, rentals, florals, dessert, and coordination. Jessica 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 :)
Jess is AMAZING! She is kind, diligent, and patient! I had so many questions and I changed my mind multiple times, and she sent me updated quotes within hours. She even called me t...
o clarify something. The service I received was beyond my expectations, Jess is simply a rockstar. You will be in exceptional hands if you go with Culinary Excellence!
I would give Jessica and her team 100 stars if I can. My journey planning my wedding with Jessica started over 1.5 years before my wedding.
My original wedding venue was Preserva...
tion Park in Oakland. Culinary Excellence was a preferred vendor. 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!
Culinary Excellence and their team were one of the best aspects of our wedding day at the Brazilian Room at Tilden Park in Berkeley. The team was incredibly professional, kind, cou...
rteous, and obviously invested in making this a special day for 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!
The folks at Culinary Excellence were absolutely amazing! We initially selected them because they fit within our budget, but soon realized we had found a winner. Allie and her team...
not only helped us with the food, but also created our beautiful 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.
Culinary Excellence was absolutely the right choice. Jessica, the primary coordinator, made the planning process easy and she always responded within minutes. She answered our thou...
sands of questions and offered advice when requested. My husband 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!
Culinary Excellence was absolutely wonderful for our wedding at the Brazilian Room. We are so happy we went with them. We loved that they provided more than catering services and w...
e went with them for our flowers, decor, chuppah, coordination, 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!
Culinary Excellence was beyond amazing!! They catered our wedding (including cake) and served as our day of coordinator. Tracy was a dream to work with. She was super responsive an...
d really helped guide my vision from day one.
We received a ton 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!!
Culinary Excellence catered my wedding just about a month ago on 9-15-18 and it was beyond anything I could have imagined! They not only did our meal, which was served family style...
, but they did our flowers, decor, chairs, tables, dance floor, 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!
Culinary Excellence was one the short list of approved caters for my venue, and after emailing with a couple of different companies, went in to meet Jess and do a tasting. We knew ...
right away that we wanted to hire them to not only do our food, but also Jess to do our coordination.
First, the food. It was delicious. I was immediately impressed when we asked if pigs in a blanket would be an option, even though they weren’t on the menu. Ten minutes later, we were presented with a plate of them to try; the chef had whipped them up just for us. We knew that the apps had to be good since that’s the best part of wedding food, and were expecting mediocre main courses. We were completely blown away by how good the entrees and sides were, and, while we didn’t choose it, the quinoa they made was the best quinoa I’ve ever tasted (we picked the twice-baked potato casserole instead, because cheese). I got tons of compliments after the wedding on how great the appetizers and dinner were. We also ended up getting our cake and cupcakes from CE, and they made my confetti filled cutter cake dream come true and also helped coordinate a family inside joke involving butter. To say CE goes the extra mile would be an understatement, they were so completely accommodating and helpful!
Second, the coordination. I knew I wanted a day-of coordinator, and after meeting Jess, knew she was The One. She’s super energetic and passionate, and I knew she would be great. Plus she knew my venue and some other vendors in the area to help. I am able to say my wedding day was perfect only because of Jess. There were, as everyone says, some things that went wrong. Some were small (we were behind schedule) and some were rather large (BevMo “forgot” to deliver our alcohol). Jess took care of everything so I didn’t have to worry about it. The alcohol eventually arrived, she dealt with the two people who showed up despite RSVP-ing no, and worked around the mariachi band that showed up 30 minutes late. It made everything super easy to hire someone from the caterer to be the coordinator. They also took care of our rentals, which again eliminated another vendor we had to deal with. Jess is also awesome, and we plan on getting drinks with her some time soon!
Where do I start? Danny and the team at Culinary Excellence made my wedding planning and wedding day so easy and stress-free. I got married at Preservation Park on September 25, 20...
16. I started working with Danny, based on the venue's recommended vendor list, in late January/early February. From first email correspondence, I knew Culinary Excellence was going to be great to work with. Danny has an amazing, positive, and calming energy. My then fiance and I really wanted pizza as our main course. When we approached multiple catering companies, many turned us down saying they wouldn't be able to do it. When we presented the feat with Culinary Excellence they accepted and over delivered! Our guests loved the pizza, and I mean, who wouldn't want to eat pizza?!
Another huge plus was that Culinary Excellence is a one-stop shop. We hired them to cater, provide all the tables, chairs, linens, dishware, bouquets and boutonniere, flower head piece for me, bartenders (we bought all the alcohol and mixers in order to save some money, which is great that Culinary Excellence allows that), cake, dance floor, market/bistro outdoor strung lights, heat lamps (although they weren't needed), and day-of coordinator (we were lucky enough to have Danny as ours -- he is seriously the best!!) I'm sure I'm missing things, but you get the idea.
My mom made ornate centerpieces that required assembly on the day of the wedding. Culinary Excellence allowed her to go to their office, see what it would look like on an actual dinner table, and then demonstrate how to assemble it so that the staff would be able to recreate them.
My mom also made our seating chart and we ended up giving it to Culinary Excellence to give future couples an idea of what you can do. Ours is the pizza themed seating chart! :)
I could go on and on, but I'll leave it there. Feel free to reach out to me if you want any more info and I'd be happy to talk to you.
Look no further for your caterer, Culinary Excellence is the BEST!
Jessica was an absolute godsend at my wedding. She made sure everything went as smoothly as possible, kept me from stressing out too much in the days leading up the wedding, and se...
rved my guests delicious food. If we could go back, I'd hire them to handle a few more things at the wedding!
I was so surprise that finding a cater was going to be easy. We got really lucky with Culinary Excellence. Their food was really really good and everyone rave about the food. We ha...
d a desert bar and I was in heaven. Chris and and his staff took care of everything from linen, food, bar, etc. If you are looking for quality food with good value that knows what he is doing then you need to call him fast before he book up quickly.
Contact
8210 Capwell Drive, Oakland, CA | We service all areas! Let us know where you will be
Culinary Excellence Catering