Caterer: LUX Catering & Events
Venue: The Orangerie at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah
Photographers: Sarah Young, Billow and Mull; Sarah McClure, Sarah McClure Photo
Overview: Visit Salt Lake hosted its first-ever influencer event last year to bring together Utah’s leading voices in travel, hospitality and tourism. Fifty creators, journalists and photographers were invited to spend the morning at Salt Lake City’s Red Butte Garden before heading into the mountains for an afternoon of adventure, sound bath work and guided hiking.
LUX was hired to design and produce the breakfast, break and lunch service, with a focus on showcasing Utah through local ingredients, thoughtful presentation and a market-style layout. The Orangerie at Red Butte Garden offered the perfect canvas: bright, airy and surrounded by the natural beauty that makes Utah such a compelling destination.
Menu Highlights
Every menu item was rooted in local product. The goal was to highlight the farms, makers and producers shaping Utah’s food culture in a way that felt fresh, modern and reflective of the region.
- Breakfast Market Stands
Guests arrived to a series of curated stations, including an Avocado Toast Market Stand with Utah Eva’s Bakery bread, Park City Creamery feta, heirloom tomatoes, charred local corn and optional Oakdell Farms sous vide eggs. The Breakfast Hash Station offered both hearty and vegetarian options with Utah potatoes, Wasatch Meats sausage, golden beets, summer squash, chard and housemade aiolis. A Yogurt and Bloom Parfait Bar featured Slide Ridge Honey, local stone fruit, honeycomb granola and a Utah fruit grazing board. - Lunch Market Stands
After the morning presentations, guests transitioned to a bright lunch built around accessibility and clean flavor. The Salad Station was served in clear glass jars with custom labels, featuring plant-forward options inspired by Utah’s landscape. The Sandwich Bar included Creminelli meats and Park City Creamery cheeses, along with a vegetarian burrata option layered with charred summer vegetables and basil pesto. Dessert featured handmade lavender peach and strawberry rhubarb hand pies.
Beverage Highlights
The beverage program was designed to feel refreshing, local and quietly elevated. Inside the Orangerie, the hydration station offered three styles of infused water—still, chlorophyll and activated charcoal, each presented in tall glass vessels with gathered garnishes like lavender, ginger, eucalyptus, cucumber, lemon and cinnamon. The still water was sourced from Salt Lake City’s historic Artesian Well Park.
Outside on the terrace, the morning began with locally roasted Millcreek Coffee served from a styled service station. When lunch service started, coffee transitioned out and three aguas frescas took its place. Cucumber mint lime, strawberry hibiscus and mango ginger were served in hammered copper dispensers with clay cantarito cups. The colors were bright, the flavors fresh, and the presentation photographed beautifully against the garden backdrop.
Design & Décor Details
Because this event brought together many of Utah’s strongest visual storytellers, the presentation needed to feel intentional, modern and reflective of the state itself. The room was designed with a warm, natural palette that echoed Utah’s diverse landscapes, from alpine greens to desert clay tones and the soft neutrals of sandstone.
Florals and planters from LUX Floral & Design carried that idea even further. Arrangements drew inspiration from the varied regions of Utah: structured greens and succulents reminiscent of the Wasatch, earthy elements nodding to red rock country, and textures pulled from high desert flora.
Market-style stations framed the room and created an easy, content-friendly flow. Custom signage, parchment-inspired paper and hand-labeled vessels added a crafted, approachable layer to the environment. Serving pieces, stoneware, cast iron, clay, woven baskets, were chosen to echo natural materials and bring depth to the food displays.
The design was clean, welcoming and rooted in hospitality, offering guests a thoughtful introduction to Utah’s food and landscape before they continued their day in the mountains.
Takeaway Tips from Chris Sanchez, LUX Catering & Events’ managing partner and CEO
1. Local sourcing becomes storytelling when you present it with intention.
It’s not enough to use local ingredients; guests need to see and feel the connection. Market stands, labeled jars, regional products and small touches like artisanal water sourced from a city spring all turn sourcing into a narrative. When guests understand the “why,” the food becomes part of the destination experience.
2. A hydration station can be a design moment, not just a utility.
Instead of hiding water on a back table, make it a feature. Multiple infused options, thoughtful garnishes, clean vessels and intentional placement turn hydration into hospitality. At influencer events especially, beautiful utility stations get photographed just as often as the food.
3. Give guests freedom of movement. It changes the energy of the room.
Market-style stations encouraged guests to move naturally through the space instead of staying seated or clustered in one area. This fluid movement not only prevented bottlenecks but also added life to the event, giving influencers more opportunities to interact, capture content and experience the environment in a way that felt dynamic and relaxed.
4. Transitions matter. Treat them like part of the experience.
The transition from breakfast to lunch created a quiet moment of surprise and delight. When guests stepped back onto the terrace, the same market-style setups they had visited earlier were refreshed with entirely new offerings. The breakfast stations were cleared and reimagined, coffee service shifted to bright agua frescas, and the lunch stations appeared within the same visual language and design foundation.
Nothing about the space changed dramatically, yet it felt renewed and worth exploring again. This kind of subtle evolution keeps the experience moving without overwhelming the guest. When stations shift with the rhythm of the event, guests feel cared for in ways they may not articulate but absolutely notice. Great catering is not only about what you serve, but how you introduce each moment so the environment unfolds naturally throughout the day.
Additional Vendors: DRNK Bar Service (beverages), BBJ (linens)
