How two ECEP members—Ridgewells Catering and Behind the Scenes Catering & Events—create food stations that elevate events and surpass guest expectations
By Sara Perez Webber
A senior event designer at Ridgewells Catering in the Washington, D.C., area, Mary Margaret Hart follows a general rule of thumb when creating a food station or buffet. “You never put anything directly on the table,” she says. “It’s got to be lifted up and not just sitting on a table, because that looks like what we do in our own homes.”
That same guiding principle could apply to what successful caterers do every day—elevate how food looks, tastes and engages the imagination, so the dining experience transcends the quotidian. Food stations, with their thoughtfully composed small plates and inspired themes, are often the perfect vehicles for caterers to show off both culinary and design expertise.
Great Expectations
Clients’ heightened expectations are spurring caterers’ creativity when designing stations. “I’m seeing a lot of wedding clients that want something that’s much more engaging than just six to eight passed hors d’oeuvres,” says Hart. “And with corporate clients, being in D.C., we do so many events for people that go to so many events. So there’s this interesting dilemma of being in a world with people who have seen everything.”
The challenge, notes Hart, is to “keep things fresh, different and unique, with little ‘wow’ moments.”
What pops up on clients’ Instagram and Facebook feeds adds to the pressure, according to John Crisafulli, president and CEO of Behind the Scenes Catering & Events in San Diego. “Social media has really changed the landscape of catering menus and stations,” he says. “Our clients see menu items, extravagant buffets or station set-ups on social media and come to us wanting to duplicate that look and feel.”
Both members of Elite Catering + Event Professionals (ECEP), Ridgewells and Behind the Scenes are known for their innovative cuisine and flawless presentation. Hart and Crisafulli described for CFE how they designed and executed a few of their popular station concepts.
- Guests lined up all night for the Peking Duck Carving Station that Ridgewells created for a November 2024 wedding at Washington’s Mellon Auditorium. The couple, whose guest list included many foodie friends from New York, “wanted to see food stations that were not just a normal charcuterie board,” says Hart. “So we pulled together a couple of ideas that we thought would be really impressive to a group of global eaters.”
The station featured whole ducks hanging dramatically from a stylized tabletop arch, with a chef attendant cutting the meat and guests customizing their pancakes with cucumbers, scallions, plum sauce and hoisin sauce. To design such a station, Hart creates a map, jotting down her vision with such specifics as the size and shape of bowls and vessels. She considers whether the station has enough height and texture, and whether the utensils match the vibe. Each design element—like the Peking duck station’s gold forks, bamboo baskets and white ceramic bowls—is chosen “with intention to guide that guest experience,” says Hart.
- With roots in Florida and South Carolina, Hart’s Southern background influenced Ridgewells’ popular Shrimp and Grits Station. One key to the station’s success is its two-by-two square grits cake—presenting a more visually pleasing starch base than scooped grits, which can look like a filmy blob on a plate. “I worked with Chef Kashif Browne about how we were tackling the grits to make the dish more composed but still getting that creamy, rich factor that shrimp and grits are known for,” says Hart.
The cakes are sent warm from the kitchen, topped with two to three shrimp each, and customized by guests with such toppings as caramelized onions and chives, red pepper remoulade and basil pesto. When designing the dish, the Ridgewells crew ensured there was enough shrimp for the size of the grits cake so that “each bite in that bowl is just as good as the first,” says Hart. “It’s something that can be an action station, a self-guided station or even passed, so there’s a ton of flexibility. Every time I put it on a menu, people pick it.”
- “The size and scale of an event impacts the food we’re going to present,” says Hart, like the Poke Bowl Station, ensuring quick service to 1,600 guests at a cocktail party in the heat of a D.C. July. The grab-and-go station featured three varieties of poke bowls—marinated saku tuna, spicy tofu and spicy mushroom—assembled by chefs and placed on multi-level platforms, with clear signage for easy identification.
The station was ideal for the season, as hot, heavy food wouldn’t be a big draw in the heat of the summer, while the setup kept things moving. “At no point were there any lines anywhere,” notes Hart.
- Behind the Scenes Catering (BTS) made a wise investment in a Lil’ Orbits Donut Machine, as its Hot Donut and Martini Station “is a huge hit,” says Crisafulli. “People love seeing those mini donuts going down the conveyer belt.”
Chef Melissa Chickerneo creates both sweet and savory varieties, with flavors including Bananas Foster, Apple Pie, Maple Bacon, Strawberry Shortcake, Espresso Macchiato, and the seasonal Pumpkin Pie and even Stuffing Donuts. “Then we pair these over-the-top concoctions with an Espresso Bailey Martini or a Godiva Chocolate Martini,” says Crisafulli. “This station tends to get very busy, so we have both a chef and server attending it so they can interact with the guests to customize their donuts as well as get them a cocktail sampling that is prebatched and ready to serve.”
The donuts are served in a variety of vessels—sometimes themed, like a fallen leaf bowl—while the mini cocktails are often presented in four-ounce martini or stemless glasses. A popular parting gift, the donuts were recently sent home with guests at a “Yellowstone”-themed Christmas party in a little Yellowstone bag.
- Kids and kids-at-heart gravitated toward the Light-Up Cotton Candy Station at Lightscape, the holiday light show at the San Diego Botanic Garden catered by Behind the Scenes annually. “Each year we try to come up with a new concession item that is Instagram-worthy,” says Crisafulli.
For the 2024 event, Crisafulli was inspired by the cotton candy foie gras lollipops made famous by José Andrés—foie gras on a stick wrapped in cotton candy. The team came up with the idea of wrapping cotton candy around a light-up wand that changes color. A commercial-grade cotton candy machine is required (“the $300 units on Amazon just don’t cut it,” notes Crisafulli), as well as mastering the skill of spinning the candy floss onto the wands and keeping it fresh in a moist outdoor environment. “After some trial and error, we perfected the station and sold thousands of them over the course of the event,” he says. “The first thing a guest does after purchasing one is to take a photo of it to post on their social media. The sheer joy on a child’s or adult’s face when they are handed this simple light-up treat is priceless.”
- A veteran Super Bowl caterer, Behind the Scenes served thousands of people at this year’s game in New Orleans. One of its station concepts, the NOLA Raw Bar, emphasized authenticity. “To make it more fun and interactive, we enlisted local oyster farmers and fishermen, who shucked fresh oysters and made ceviche for the guests,” says Crisafulli.
Insulated hammered silver bowls sat atop an ice-filled galvanized horse water trough, offering ceviche, oysters, mussels, shrimp and pulled crab claws—all from local purveyors. The oyster shuckers, who were encouraged to chat with the guests, are what set this raw bar apart, notes Crisafulli: “The personalities serving at the station were the perfect final touch.”
The Right Stuff
Helping caterers pull off interesting stations and buffets are the foodservice equipment manufacturers who continue to debut products that add function and style to catered events.
The Palletti Countertop Daisy Chain Induction Warmers from Hatco feature a daisy-chain design, so up to four units can interconnect to one electrical outlet, simplifying setup for seamless buffet lines. The warmers’ induction technology ensures consistent and precise heating while minimizing energy consumption. Five precise warming levels maintain foods at ideal temperatures, and memory-retentive settings automatically resume the last power level when powered back on.
Suitable for a wide range of food types and volumes, the warmers’ low-profile, ultra-thin design makes them easy to transport and integrate into various layouts, all while enhancing stations’ overall appearance. Additional features include a standby key; intuitive temperature control arrows; easy-to-read temperature indicators; Pan Sense Technology, which activates only when a suitable pan is placed on top; flameless operation; and an automatic shut-off feature.
The SkyRize modular system from Rosseto Serving Solutions is designed to elevate and customize buffet stations. The system’s virtually endless configurations include risers in gold and black with hanging signs for food identification. Shelf options include large and medium rectangular shelves and small square shelves in bamboo, black bamboo and walnut.
SkyRize also includes a variety of platter, bowl and plate options made from handmade glass, with design options including crystal clear, gold and white, and black and white.
