Linda Abbey, vice president of Great Performances, a New York City catering firm whose corporate clients include KPMG, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Goldman Sachs, talks about trends in high-end food & beverage:
Scales, not fur. “I’m seeing much more of a focus on fish entrees,” says Abbey. A decade ago, she recalls, serving salmon was considered daring; nowadays, groups have stopped turning up their noses at the pink fish and moved on to its lesser-known cousins, like striped bass, turbot, and tile fish.
At a recent tasting for clients planning a high-profile event at an auction house, Abbey began with a typical beef entrée and finished with an unusual, miso-glazed black bass over bok choy. “It was the last [option] I showed them and they went crazy over it,” she says. “We served it at the event, and people just loved it.”
Soft drinks. “We’ve seen the Cosmopolitans and the appletinis, and I think people are kind of tired of all that,” says Abbey. “Now they’re starting to ask for clever nonalcoholic drinks.” In the summer, she might serve blueberry lemonade or mango iced tea; in the winter, hot mulled (nonalcoholic) cider.
Small desserts. “The whole comfort-food craze has kind of played itself out,” observes Abbey. “We used to do whopping desserts, but now we’re tailoring down the size by about 25 percent. People want a cunning little delicious something to send them off into the night.”