Wolfgang Puck's been in the kitchen all day and he hasn't made a thing. He's fielding phone calls, doing interviews, and posing for photo shoots, including one with noted celebrity photographer Jay Silverman. It's clear that the only thing Puck will cook up today is a lot of publicity; Puck is promoting his new role as the official caterer for all special events at Universal Studios Hollywood.
"It's a perfect match for us," Puck says of the new partnership. "Universal Studios Hollywood attracts upscale groups and is such an interesting venue." Indeed, Universal Studios Hollywood, which bills itself as the world's largest movie studio and theme park, is really a collection of unique event spaces: from the 9,600-square-foot Globe Theater, to the outdoor venues that accommodate up to 2,500, to the sound stages and back lots that recreate times and places from modern-day New York to ancient Greece.
"It's been nothing but positive," says Evelyn Taylor, director of special events for Universal Studios Hollywood. "Any time you combine a celebrity chef with our venue, it puts us on the radar screen of people who probably wouldn't normally consider an event at a theme park." Dave Merrell, president of Los Angeles-based event production and design firm, An Original Occasion, who often works with Wolfgang Puck Catering and Universal Studios Hollywood for his events, agrees. "Especially in Hollywood, groups coming in will want that Hollywood [star] element," he says. "Having a celebrity name attached is an advantage."
Universal Studios Hollywood is just one of several venues across the country partnering with well-known chefs. At the same time, hotels and resorts have been partnering with celebrity chefs to open signature restaurants. The proliferation of these brand-name restaurants on property, along with the availability of celebrity chefs on the catering circuit, come together to offer planners a whole new level of food and beverage offerings at a time when the quality of meals in meetings is as important as it has ever been.
A TASTE FOR IT
Timing is everything, and the interest in, and attention paid to, the food and beverage component in meetings has been ramping up for a while. "Food is becoming more important to meeting planners," says Taylor. "It used to be [split evenly] between the food and the entertainment, but now it's really more about the food." Taylor says the meeting planners she works with are requesting more creativity and originality from the catering service. And since the Wolfgang Puck partnership was announced, she says, the planners seem even more excited by the possibilities. "We used to be able to send out our 20 menus and they'd choose one, but now, especially with the Wolfgang Puck partnership, they'll say, 'Just create something fabulous,' or 'I want something you've never done before,' " she says. "It's a great selling point."
The same is true at resort hotels, where the list of celebrity chefs with signature restaurants is long and getting longer. It includes Emeril Lagasse, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Bobby Flay, Nobu Matsuhisa, Wolfgang Puck, and Charlie Palmer, to name a few. Properties that host such brand-name restaurants find that they go a long way in bringing in meetings business. "Just like in the dining public, there is an increasing awareness of and interest in new types of cuisine [among planners]. A fascination, even," says Paul Grimm, vice president of food and beverage for Atlantis, Paradise Island, in the Bahamas. By year's end, Atlantis will be home to three celebrity-chef signature restaurants. "When we [host meeting groups at] the hotel, having the name-brand restaurants adds so much value," adds Alex Kim, Atlantis' vice president of conference services.
It's a selling point for planners, as well. "It does help to sell to the client," says An Original Occasion's Merrell. "From a corporate standpoint, it makes the offer more attractive versus a no-name caterer." And the appeal goes beyond the allure of celebrity itself. Planners say working with celebrity caterers or dining at celebrity chefs' restaurants ensures a certain level of quality. "I think it does help that the people are familiar with the chef," says Eileen Rivard, vice president of special events for New York City-based HBO, who regularly works with Charlie Palmer to cater her annual Emmy Awards party. "Certainly, you know what you can expect, he has a great reputation, and most people have been to his restaurants."
CATERED AFFAIRS
Wolfgang Puck made his name in the 1980s when, particularly through his Hollywood restaurant Spago, he popularized what became known as "California cuisine" and emerged as one of the country's best-known chefs. Now he sits atop a sprawling food business empire that includes his catering business, Wolfgang Puck Catering (WPC). "I first started doing small catered parties, and my first big thing was the Academy Awards 12 years ago," says Puck. "After a while, we thought, 'Okay, why not do that more organized and more as a business?' "
It's a familiar story to Charlie Palmer, another brand-name chef who's now in the catering business. At Aureole, the New York City restaurant that launched Palmer's career, the largest table seated eight people. "Time after time we turned down large parties and we finally said, 'We need to find a venue that works for this kind of thing,' " says Palmer. That quest resulted in the development of his catering operation.
These chefs will do their best to erase any distinction between their catered food and their restaurant food. "We approach the catering just like we do the restaurant," says Wolfgang Puck. "If you go to hotels, they plate the food in the afternoon, then put it in hot boxes and let it sit for hours, then heat it up and serve it. Nothing is really hot, and everything tastes the same. But we treat every event as if it is in one of our restaurants. We serve the food hot and fast." Puck says this approach is essential, both to the quality of the food and to his own business interests. "Word of mouth is our biggest advertisement," he says of his catering operation. "We don't use magazines or television. The most important ad for us is that everyone must go home happy."
To that end, all the WPC chefs are trained in the restaurants and then sent out into the field. The operation has offices in 10 cities nationwide, with more openings in the pipeline. "We're trying to become a national premium catering brand, where you can find consistency in the menus, in the staffing, in how we do things," says Carl Schuster, WPC's CEO and managing partner. "We're creating this network of venues, like a hotel. So if you're in Atlanta this year, Los Angeles next year, and Seattle the next, we can take care of you in each place." Planners work with one account manager to coordinate each event.
"We don't even really call it catering," Palmer says. "We call it special events, because catering to me implies this truck pulling up with a bunch of precooked food, just a necessary part of some event, and that's not exciting." So Palmer, like Puck, partners with event venues, a strategy he says allows him to better serve clients. "Our kitchens are set up to do exactly what we need in a controlled setting, as opposed to transporting food and everything else to another location," says Palmer. "We have it set up so that we can serve larger numbers of people simultaneously, while still cooking the food minutes before it goes out. You can't really do that off premises or even in big hotels."
Planners find these partnerships advantageous to the overall execution of the event. "I think it's beneficial in many respects when the caterers partner with venues," says HBO's Rivard. For one thing, she says, it means working with a dedicated service staff. "Service is always the biggest challenge," she says. "And they have a full-time staff, so it wasn't just like going out and hiring extra cater-waiters. It's one thing to have quality food, but you have to get it to the people. And when 1,100 people arrive all at once, I don't want to have long lines at the bar or the buffet."
A NAME YOU KNOW
In addition to brand value, a celebrity name promises a certain level of quality. Crystal VanBrug-Paul, operations manager for San Jose, CA-based technology company Cisco Systems, says that because her attendees are high-level executives with equally high standards, celebrity chef-branded food offers an additional sense of security. "A lot of our executives actually are chefs and wine connoisseurs, so if there is a celebrity chef's restaurant on site, it makes a difference to me, whether or not it makes a difference to them, because I know the food will be wonderful and the service will be really good. There's a proven track record there, rather than sending people to an experience that you don't know what it's going to be like."
At the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman, where Eric Ripert (of the New York City restaurant, Le Bernardin) has two restaurants, Director of Food and Beverage Roger Ponce says, "We're careful about how we handle group menus, because everything that comes out of the restaurant is immediately associated with Eric Ripert, and we can't risk his name. He hand picked and trained the chef who oversees daily operations, and every menu that is designed is reviewed by Ripert."
COOKS IN THE KITCHEN
With national catering networks and signature restaurants in so many cities, how involved in each event can the namesake chefs really be? "The chefs themselves are most definitely involved," says Janell Favaloro, large-party restaurant sales manager for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which hosts restaurants by chefs Joel Robuchon, Emeril Lagasse, and Tom Colicchio, among others. "They work with us, their general managers, and their top chefs to make sure we all plan together accordingly when it comes to special events."
And when the chefs aren't on site, says Atlantis' Grimm, they remain involved in the menu planning. "We had a group come to Nobu, and he was in the loop on their menu development via e-mail," he says. And even in their absence, the chefs' standards are constantly upheld. "Sometimes they appear out of nowhere, and that keeps everyone on their toes," Grimm says.
HBO's Rivard says that the national scope of Charlie Palmer's operation actually benefits her when she's planning the Emmy party. "His people were out in Los Angeles, but I could have my tasting [at his restaurant] here in New York, which was more convenient for me, because I didn't have to fly across the country," she says. "And Charlie would always show up, which made me feel that he was really committed."
CHECK, PLEASE
Of course, as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for, and celebrity names don't come cheap. "People are on tight budgets, and they're being held accountable for their expenses," says Cisco's VanBrug-Paul. "Prices are much higher at [celebrity chef] restaurants." But the chefs insist that excellent cuisine will cost more. "I don't want to be the cheapest," Puck says unapologetically. "I want to do only jobs where people appreciate great food and great service. If you go to all the expense and the trouble of planning the event and then cut down the cost of the food and beverage, people won't be happy with that. You don't want to have cold food, low-quality meats, and canned vegetables. Our customers want to have the best, not the cheapest." Puck says high-quality food is made of high-quality ingredients, and high-quality ingredients can be costly. "There are caterers who do parties for $22 per plate, including a full dinner and wine. We can't do that. If you buy a good steak, already it will cost you $10 to $12 each. For us, it is quality first. We don't do parties where they only have a little money to spend but they want to have a lot of food."
Still, planners who rely on celebrity chefs to create the cuisine for their events say the end result is worth the additional investment, because it's hard to overstate the power of celebrity. "There are lots of caterers out there that have great products," says An Original Occasion's Merrell. "But if I went up against Wolfgang Puck in a tasting—even if they loved my food and didn't like his— they'd still be more comfortable with his food, because of the celebrity element."