“There is a growing awareness and knowledge about food among planners, and that makes them both harder and easier to work with. We have good relationships with people who are looking to us for our creativity. But sometimes they’ll have some ideas that are sometimes impossible to do. They’ll say, ‘This is what I want. Figure out how to do it.’ And what I never do is compromise what we do because of somebody’s idea. I’ll tell you we can’t do it if we can’t do it well. But at the same time, I like to think we’re probably some of the most innovative and creative in coming up with new ideas. After all, they’re coming to us because they don’t want run-of-the-mill rubber chicken, they want something special. We think out of the box. We don’t even call this catering because catering to me implies this truck pulling up with a bunch of precooked food that’s going to be served and it’s not exciting.Planners should first be willing and open to ideas, and I think for the most part they are, because that’s what they’re coming to us for. If you want to do things that are special, sometimes it costs more. We’re not going to work on a budget that we know we can’t do a good job with. It becomes economics on how to ‘wow’ your guests.”--Charlie PalmerWhen caterers go out to bid, and they keep going lower and lower and lower, they cannot make good quality food. Some planners think you can cut the prices and still have good food, but you get what you pay for. And I think good advice for planners is to approach a chef by that chef’s specialty. For example, I don’t want to hire Paul Prodhomme from New Orleans to make Japanese food, I want to hire him because he makes a great Cajun food.But generally, I like to work with people who have talent and integrity and who do a quality job. --Wolfgang Puck