I recently helped organize the Stanford Parents’ Club Spring Dinner, an annual social event this year held at a home in Palo Alto. We hired the wonderful Cosmopolitan Catering to provide the meal.
Instead of a formal sit-down dinner, we designed a more casual small plate grazing menu with multiple food stations. We wanted to create a more interactive party flow (by the way, Wolfgang Puck made the same change for this year’s after-Oscar party). The caterer cooked up the following flavorful eats:
- Antipasti platter with a great assortment of Italian cheeses, cured and dried meats, grilled, pickled, and marinated vegetables, with Italian breadsticks and crostini
- Beef brisket sliders with bleu cheese sauce and caramelized onions
- Pulled pork sliders with honey mustard BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese
- Grilled vegetable sliders with provolone and roasted garlic
- Jojo potato wedges
- Chinese chicken salad in take-out boxes with chopsticks
- Thai noodle salad, also in take-out boxes
- Garden fresh crudite in shot glasses with pesto ranch and red bell pepper sauce
Many attendees contributed a variety of desserts to end the meal on a sweet note. We had plenty of red and white wine, water, iced tea, hot tea and coffee to drink.
The grazing menu offered a delicious assortment with something for everyone, and worked well in creating a casual, easy-going mood for the party. Having guests bring homemade desserts also added to the festivities with both the wonderful sweets and by allowing guests to participate with a personal touch.
To top it off, we enjoyed delightful spring weather, jazz keyboard music performed by a Stanford student, and lots of lively conversation and laughter. We even witnessed the solar eclipse which peaked during our dinner party. Several guests brought viewing glasses and pinhole papers to see this special event, and hundreds of crescents glimmered on the house as the sunlight shined through the leaves on the trees. Magical.
