From the hors d'oeuvres to the dessert, Rodney Smith, director of catering, sales, and convention services for Los Angeles' Millennium Biltmore Hotel, works closely with planners to orchestrate memorable meals, like next month's reception and dinner for the LA-based American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).
Smith counseled the planner about the style and quantity of reception refreshments, and recommended a butler-style wine service (where waiters pass through the crowd with trays of wine) along with a selection of five hot and cold hors d'oeuvres. "For 350 people, serving about 200 servings each of five items should be enough," Smith says.
For dinner, served in the hotel's historic Crystal Ballroom, the planner selected a three-course menu, which will start with a roasted Bosc pear salad, served with endive, caramelized walnuts, Gorgonzola, and a roasted shallot vinaigrette. Although at the tasting the planner originally preferred another, spinach-based salad, Smith recommended the pear because of its plated appearance. "The pear salad has a little color to it, and you have to consider both presentation and taste," he says. "You might like the spinach salad, and it does taste great, but close your eyes and look at 300 of them. Is that the look you want to achieve?"
Smith paired the salad with a Château Ste-Michelle Chardonnay. "If I know the background of the group is that they're wine drinkers, I'll guide [the planner] toward the higher-end, more popular wines," he says. "But if it's more of a celebratory type of event, I'll guide them toward something they might just want to use for that." The Chardonnay will be left on the table throughout the meal, along with a La Crema Pinot Noir—so that diners may choose their own pairing with their entrees.
Each diner chose an entree in advance from a list of three: Chicken Mediterranean, served with artichokes, kalamata olives, and feta cheese; herb-crusted Alaskan halibut, served with a lime-butter sauce; or the vegetarian dish, a vegetable Wellington, served atop a bed of curried yams with a grilled eggplant roll, green beans, sauteed mushrooms, roasted peppers, lentil, and a citrus risotto.
Finally, for dessert, Smith recommended a trio. "We let [planners] sample all of our desserts, and usually they can't decide," Smith says. "So we let them choose three, and we serve all three in demi-sized portions on each plate." The final selection: pear caramel mousse with a vanilla bean sauce, fruit Florentine in a chocolate-hazelnut crunch cup, and vanilla coulis.