Secrets from a Caterer's Kitchen: The Indispensable Guide for Planning a Party Paperback – February 1, 2001

I am a professional chef and this book help me set up for a couple small and large caterings after first coming out of culinary school and only having limited access and experience with these types of large events!This book covers a lot of the basics and a few of the most stressful and informative tasks about a large catering! You get a planning of menus for both large and small events, information about the where to have or host the event, decoration advice, creating innovative invitations, and most importantly, maintaining a budget!!I do wish it had more information on how much to purchase for a certain amount of people. It does cover some recipes but a set number of protein, number of hotel pans, or weight for a specific guest count could also be useful but other than that this book was a life saver!!Timelines are added and a little on set up and equipment is also touched!! This is a great book if you’re having guest soon!!Click YES if this review was helpful. If not, or if you have a question, leave a comment and I'll answer you! Feedback helps me improve my review! THANKS

I enjoy cooking for 2 to over 20 people, and there can be so much to remember to have the entertaining/dining event turn out "just right".Perhaps you have been to some terrific parties, many "ok" ones, and rarely to some you would uh, rather forget as well... so following this book's advice will better ensure that your event is among the memorable fun events!This book has the commonsense keys to planning and carrying out all plans for the event, from scheduling the event, writing out clear and occasionally fun invitations, budgeting dollarwise for a simple picnic lunch or 7 course dinner's expense ($6 or $60 per person), budgeting for the right quantity of each food, whether it's lobster tails at a buffet, or ounces of turkey for a sit-down meal... it's all in here!Learn correct place settings, kitchen equipment to bring along, bar setups and liquor amounts, rental of extra chairs and tables, where to put the buffet for best effect, ah, it goes on and on!Did you remember to order flowers, when appropriate? Hire a bartender and or a DJ for larger gatherings, so you can mingle with your guests? Freeze and make flavored ice cubes, instead of diluting drinks with melted water from regular ice? Think of fun ways to "theme" decorate your event?"Timelines are included so everything is prepared and placed in order, and making having your list to follow ensures that nothing is forgotten until the end, because it was "hidden in the refrigerator", or "left in the shopping bag".Don't want to be embarassed halfway through the event by "Why didn't we think of that?" Well, get this book, and profit from Nicole Aloni's many years of great parties, and learn from her rare bloopers.And, it has an ample number of over 150 "tried and true" recipes, as a bonus.

I appreciate having Aloni's books in my catering collection. They are full of useful information and have a delightful tone. Watch out for the recipe for Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Torta. The quantities for the tomato and pesto layers appear not to be correct. I suggest doubling them. I used a 2-quart souffle dish to form the torta; there was barely enough pesto & tomato for one layer of each. Consequently I wasted a lot of time having to double back and make more of these two layers, including another trip to the grocery store. I'm trusting that the dish will be attractive and tasty as described by the author but "easy" is not a word that applies here. I wonder if this recipe was scaled down from a large quantity (you can't make just one of these for Neiman Marcus), thus the quantities are messed up a bit.

I just used this book to host a party of 165 people. I took advice from every chapter and found the conversion tables particularly helpful. I doubt I would have had the confidence to take on this major event without this book--it was a confidence builder for sure. The gazpacho recipe (without the mussels), the blue cheese pate, and the idea for making a crisp for dessert all factored into my own menu. I ended up using the e-vite conversion for beer and wine. I think that a better alcohol section for large outdoor parties would be a good addition to the next edition. The author's advice to hire servers and to engage one more than you think you need was instrumental in the success of our party and in allowing me to be a true hostess. What a gem of a book!

A friend gave me this in advance of a series of big parties that I'm dealing in the next few months, including my daughter's wedding which we are debating catering ourselves. I found this very useful, with an onslaught of great tricks and tips. She covers small things such as considering table height of dishes (she recommends using cake stands) to recipes and why some foods simply don't lend themselves well to quantity cooking. Her writing style to the point, friendly and confident. In short, like someone I'd want to have cater an affair!I found this useful in planning a big event such as a wedding, too - you learn a lot about how caterers think,a and some fundamentals about pulling off a big event, whether you're planning to do it yourself or hire someone.

I'd read great things about this book and was hoping for more conversions and amounts of food to serve large groups. There is a nice table that includes some amounts, but I was hoping for a more comprehensive list.It includes some interesting recipes, and it looks like it would be great if you're looking for the whole...how to do it and start from scratch. I already have recipes I want to use and so it wasn't exactly what I needed.

great book! wish I had gotten it years ago! It would have been a great help to organizing parties. The only improvement I would suggest are more actual worksheets to help organize.

Great book

This book is written for those who are considering starting a catering business and gives many practical suggestions on how to prioritise the essentials. It was very interesting to read of the author's experiences but I had expected more advice on budgeting etc.