My wedding in Oct. 2022 was catered by Culinary Excellence. They are a fabulous wedding service that can do it all. We had a beautiful buffet and lovely appetizers at happy hour with great service. The food was delicious and the people were easy to work with. I would definitely recommend them!
Madeline J.
I had to unfortunately plan a funereal, and needed a caterer within one week. I was recommended Culinary Excellence. And am SO happy I did. Even under intense deadlines, they went above and beyond to make it a wonderful and meaningful event. For a three hour event, we ended up doing 5 passed apps (2 hot, 3 cold). And also three stationary items, coffee/tea station and bartending service. We had a total of 80 people attending. Culinary Excellence handled organizing logistics with the event space, complete set up and tear down. It felt amazing to have such seasoned caterers take care of everything for us. Culinary Excellence was incredibly professional, prompt ... and delicious!!
Katie Ludington
My now husband and I had such a great experience working with Samantha and Jody at Culinary Excellence! We utilized CE’s catering, coordination, and floral services for our wedding last week at the Brazilian Room, and everything turned out better than we could have imagined. They helped our vision come to life, and provided their expertise along the way. The food was absolutely delicious - all of our guests couldn’t stop raving about it. I was obsessed with my florals and all of the table arrangements! The staff were all professional, friendly, and experienced the day of the event. We highly recommend Culinary Excellence and would choose them again in a heartbeat!
Jenny L.
Finally, after 3.5 long years... Where do we begin? We met the extraordinary team of Jessica and Chris at an open house in the Brazilian Room back in 2019 for an April 2020 wedding. And then the pandemic hit. Little did we know we'd wait THREE and a half long years to finally have the event, and it was so perfect, I don't think we could have done it without them. I especially developed a close relationship with Jess as she is my sister witch (we are both Potterheads) and I am convinced she has magical powers. Firstly, the food. CE was an excellent partner in making our vision come to life. Food was my number one priority, so it was key to have a vendor that excelled in this. Since we were going to have a daytime wedding, we worked together to create a great brunch menu. Chris knocked it out of the park and made this flavorful, juicy, crunchy, bone-in, non-greasy fried chicken, and delicious waffles with freshly made pumpkin butter-perfect for the fall! We also had a tater tot bar, a mimosa bar, their delicious red banana and papaya salad, and many more. The passed hors d'oeuvres were *outstanding,* too. My guests continue to rave about the food to this day. Second, the decor and coordination. Honestly, if we had the budget, I would have let Jess handle everything from wedding prep. But because we didn't, we did the day-of ala carte service where Jess would handle our day-of vendor coordination and make sure everything ran on time. I highly recommend getting CE to coordinate for you. If Jess had a magic wand, it would be a maestro's baton, because she orchestrated everything for us from the ceremony to the very end and I didn't have to worry about a thing. She is worth her weight in gold. For our prep, Jess provided me with honest feedback on the best ways to do things on a budget, answered all of my questions, and made a comfortable space in which I could provide feedback, too. In the end, everything was set up so beautifully and exceeded my expectations. Despite my one priority being food, the setup and decorations were simply stunning, especially considering our budget. Thirdly, I have to sing (more) praises about Jess. Her years of experience shone and it was fantastic seeing her in her element the day of the wedding. But more than that, she's become my friend. Not only did she earn our trust during the process, but she went above and beyond in working with us to achieve a perfect day for our family and friends. CE will now be my local go-to for any catering needs or milestone celebrations. Should you (be fortunate enough to) work with them, my advice is to make sure to give them honest feedback as early as possible, ask for *their* feedback and approach it like a collaborative partnership, ask as many questions as you need to, and trust the process. They know what they're doing.
Melissa W.
They did an outstanding job for our wedding and I could not recommend them more. The food was incredible, the florals were gorgeous, everything ran sooo smoothly with the help of our coordinator, and all of the staff were so polite, friendly, and professional. I am so glad we went with Culinary Excellence, I wasn't stressed leading up to the wedding because I knew we were in good hands. Our coordinator really went above and beyond also to follow the natural dynamics of the party and make adjustments to what we had planned on the fly. They really helped to make our wedding so special, memorable, and warm.
Anna M.
Culinary excellence just catered our wedding at the Brazil Room and we can't say enough good things about the company! They are on the list of preferred vendors and should be your #1 pick. They are a one stop shop and offer just about everything you could need to make your big day complete. We chose to use them for catering and day of coordination. With that said, we had SO many compliments on the hors d'oeuvres, buffet and overall look of the wedding. Sierra was our day of coordinator and she is AMAZING! She was communicative, personable, down to earth and incredible day of the wedding. I cannot recommend her enough. She made sure the ceremony and reception space looked incredible and checked-in on us all night! Our guests are still texting/ calling us to tell us how lovely they thought she was and how good the food was. Overall, we would absolutely use this wonderful company and thank you Sierra and CE team!
M W.
We chose Culinary Excellence to cater and coordinate our wedding in September. We worked mainly with Samantha and we were so so happy with our decision. Even though we had to plan our wedding out of state, Samantha made the entire process so easy. After our first inquiry, Samantha was so helpful with providing us tons of examples, information, that we knew exactly what menus and services they could provide with the catering. She also did a zoom consultation to go over everything since we were out of the area. It also made things much simpler for us given that they provide coordination services as well! Instead of trying to coordinate with multiple vendors ourselves, we had Culinary Excellence provide our florals, rentals, lawn games, catering, etc. Samantha was also our day of coordinator and helped with rehearsal as well. The entire time leading up the wedding date, Samantha was very responsive to any questions that we had come up. When the wedding date finally arrived, everything provide by Culinary Excellence was perfect. In addition to the dinner service, Samantha was able to pull together exactly the vision that we had for the decor/ florals and ambiance. After the event we received compliments from our guests that the event staff were very professional and very organized; the food was excellent; and florals were beautiful. Our wedding was better than anything we could have imagined, and Culinary Excellence and Samantha were key to making that happen. We definitely recommend them for their services!!!
lance l.
Culinary Excellence catered and serviced our wedding in June. Amazing. They were on a list of preferred vendors, and they were the first, and only, vendor we met with and had an über-delicious sampling. We made our minds up on the spot. Sierra was our project manager and she's amazing. Unflusterable and understanding. Our needs were basic, but specific. She nailed all of it- including checking in on me during cocktails and hors d'oeuvre before ceremony to make sure I was eating! When we walked in The Brazilian Room before anyone arrived, it was wonderously beautifully set up and arranged. All of our guests, family, friends , loved ones marvelled at the entire wedding. Oh? And price? Extra-reasonabLe including all the extra service and attention. I'll definitely use Culinary Excellence again- for any event! Thank you Sierra!
Jordan H.
We had our wedding August 4th at the Brazilian Room. We reached out to Culinary Excellence because they were a preferred vendor at this venue. We are so happy we did. Right off the bat Sierra was super helpful and responsive. She scheduled a tasting with us and right away we knew that we wanted to work with her and the rest of the staff. Our big day couldn't have been pulled off without them. The food was excellent! The staff was attentive, and Sierra was the best. She set everything up just the way we wanted it. If our guests had a question or needed something she took care of it right away. The prices are more then competitive. If you are looking for a caterer I highly recommend Culinary Excellence, you won't be disappointed.
Walla O.
Culinary Excellence went above and beyond for our wedding! Samantha deserves a special shoutout for making everything perfect. We truly appreciate all the communication and effort she put in the months and weeks leading up to the event to make sure our vision came to life. From the delicious food to the stunning decor, they made our day truly unforgettable. Highly recommend!
We are so happy that we worked with Culinary Excellence for the catering and floral arrangements for our wedding at the Brazil Room. They took the suggestions we gave them at our initial meeting and made them even better. On the day of our wedding we were able to relax and know that we were in good hands. The staff were friendly and easy to work with (especially Sierra) and made sure that we had everything we needed for our wedding to go off without a hitch.The day of, the food was delicious, the dinner and venue staging was beautiful, and the floral arrangements were gorgeous. Everyone was very impressed by the service, and so were we. Our dinner was a buffet, but they served the two of us at our table and one of the staff members even found us after we came back from photos and made sure we got a tray of the appetizers.
Mel T.
I cannot say enough amazing things about this company. Samantha was the lead for my wedding and she did such an incredible job there are no words to describe! She attended to every detail and went above and beyond what we asked and what I expected. She is experienced, passionate, and very professional. They bring a wonderful crew to staff their event, they were prompt, everything was set up and taken down on time, everything I requested was there and more. The owner of the business is the kindest man and very much cares about quality. He is such an accomplished and incredible man but all the while very humble and approachable so kind to talk to. He was nice enough to take the time to meet with my mom and I when we came up to do a tasting. Throughout the entire process they were easy to communicate with, flexible, knowledgeable, and resourceful! They really are a One-Stop shop if you're going to have a wedding or any kind of party for that matter. You can count on them to really deliver and do it all at a very reasonable price which in the Bay Area nowadays it's hard to come by! And last but not least, the food the food the food! I had multiple guests come up to me and say it was the best wedding food they ever had and I 100% agreed! The selection they have is incredible and can be customized by culture not only that but the quality of the ingredients and the sophistication of the selection is exquisite! We had the Thai chili shrimp, spanakopita, sausage filo wrapped bites, steak with the chimichurri sauce. Those were just the appetizers alone, there was so much more for this sides and the main dish it really was decadent and really met everyone's needs. They have so many great side options that even if you don't have for example on all vegetarian wedding or all vegan wedding plenty of options for everybody to have good protein filling meals with this election they have. Wonderful job Culinary Excellence thank you so very much to Samantha and her team, you will forever be in my heart
Paul L.
We found them at a Wedding Fair put on by the East Bay Park District. Their boneless short ribs became the bar that other caters there had to exceed -- none did. It ended up costing more for that entree choice, but it was worth it. They later had their own Wedding Fair at their office where we got to sample many of their other food offerings which was nice and many were quite tasty. We ended up contracting them to cater our wedding. They handled the food, linens, plates, glasses, flatware, table centerpieces, ceremony arch, flowers, pretty much everything except liquor that we purchased ourselves at BevMo and dropped off at their office the week prior to our wedding. Being pretty much a one-stop-shop helped greatly with wedding planning that we did ourselves. The day of the wedding, they set everything up nicely, received our cake via courier from an outside bakery, and everything went off smoothly. Working with Sierra was great as she was responsive and accomodating. Hopefully, I'll never have a need to get married again, but I'd use them again if I did.
Kristina L.
Sierra and her team were so professional and went above and beyond at our wedding. We are so happy with what we got for our money on our wedding day. They really deliver on their promises, and are able to problem solve in the moment (we had a special type of venue that required some heavy lifting!). Plus, the food was so amazing and they offer so many choices to choose from (we did do a tasting beforehand). Sierra was so responsive to my many questions in the months leading up to our wedding, and the chefs were able to cater to our dietary needs (gluten free and dairy free options). Thank you again to the entire team for making our wedding a complete success and providing yummy food and great service!
Laurae C.
Food was amazing and consistently so. This is the 2nd Board week supported by Culinary Excellence and the feedback from the Directors gets better each time. They are on site early for setup and discreet while doing so. Very accommodating and flexible with menu suggestions. No matter what is served, guaranteed to taste delicious! Please use them for your next corporate event and you will never regret the choice! (Next time will take photos to share)
My wedding in Oct. 2022 was catered by Culinary Excellence. They are a fabulous wedding service that can do it all. We had a beautiful buffet and lovely appetizers at happy hour with great service. The food was delicious and the people were easy to work with. I would definitely recommend them!
I had to unfortunately plan a funereal, and needed a caterer within one week. I was recommended Culinary Excellence. And am SO happy I did. Even under intense deadlines, they went above and beyond to make it a wonderful and meaningful event. For a three hour event, we ended up doing 5 passed apps (2 hot, 3 cold). And also three stationary items, coffee/tea station and bartending service. We had a total of 80 people attending. Culinary Excellence handled organizing logistics with the event space, complete set up and tear down. It felt amazing to have such seasoned caterers take care of everything for us. Culinary Excellence was incredibly professional, prompt ... and delicious!!
My now husband and I had such a great experience working with Samantha and Jody at Culinary Excellence! We utilized CE’s catering, coordination, and floral services for our wedding last week at the Brazilian Room, and everything turned out better than we could have imagined. They helped our vision come to life, and provided their expertise along the way. The food was absolutely delicious - all of our guests couldn’t stop raving about it. I was obsessed with my florals and all of the table arrangements! The staff were all professional, friendly, and experienced the day of the event. We highly recommend Culinary Excellence and would choose them again in a heartbeat!
Finally, after 3.5 long years... Where do we begin? We met the extraordinary team of Jessica and Chris at an open house in the Brazilian Room back in 2019 for an April 2020 wedding. And then the pandemic hit. Little did we know we'd wait THREE and a half long years to finally have the event, and it was so perfect, I don't think we could have done it without them. I especially developed a close relationship with Jess as she is my sister witch (we are both Potterheads) and I am convinced she has magical powers. Firstly, the food. CE was an excellent partner in making our vision come to life. Food was my number one priority, so it was key to have a vendor that excelled in this. Since we were going to have a daytime wedding, we worked together to create a great brunch menu. Chris knocked it out of the park and made this flavorful, juicy, crunchy, bone-in, non-greasy fried chicken, and delicious waffles with freshly made pumpkin butter-perfect for the fall! We also had a tater tot bar, a mimosa bar, their delicious red banana and papaya salad, and many more. The passed hors d'oeuvres were *outstanding,* too. My guests continue to rave about the food to this day. Second, the decor and coordination. Honestly, if we had the budget, I would have let Jess handle everything from wedding prep. But because we didn't, we did the day-of ala carte service where Jess would handle our day-of vendor coordination and make sure everything ran on time. I highly recommend getting CE to coordinate for you. If Jess had a magic wand, it would be a maestro's baton, because she orchestrated everything for us from the ceremony to the very end and I didn't have to worry about a thing. She is worth her weight in gold. For our prep, Jess provided me with honest feedback on the best ways to do things on a budget, answered all of my questions, and made a comfortable space in which I could provide feedback, too. In the end, everything was set up so beautifully and exceeded my expectations. Despite my one priority being food, the setup and decorations were simply stunning, especially considering our budget. Thirdly, I have to sing (more) praises about Jess. Her years of experience shone and it was fantastic seeing her in her element the day of the wedding. But more than that, she's become my friend. Not only did she earn our trust during the process, but she went above and beyond in working with us to achieve a perfect day for our family and friends. CE will now be my local go-to for any catering needs or milestone celebrations. Should you (be fortunate enough to) work with them, my advice is to make sure to give them honest feedback as early as possible, ask for *their* feedback and approach it like a collaborative partnership, ask as many questions as you need to, and trust the process. They know what they're doing.
They did an outstanding job for our wedding and I could not recommend them more. The food was incredible, the florals were gorgeous, everything ran sooo smoothly with the help of our coordinator, and all of the staff were so polite, friendly, and professional. I am so glad we went with Culinary Excellence, I wasn't stressed leading up to the wedding because I knew we were in good hands. Our coordinator really went above and beyond also to follow the natural dynamics of the party and make adjustments to what we had planned on the fly. They really helped to make our wedding so special, memorable, and warm.
Culinary excellence just catered our wedding at the Brazil Room and we can't say enough good things about the company! They are on the list of preferred vendors and should be your #1 pick. They are a one stop shop and offer just about everything you could need to make your big day complete. We chose to use them for catering and day of coordination. With that said, we had SO many compliments on the hors d'oeuvres, buffet and overall look of the wedding. Sierra was our day of coordinator and she is AMAZING! She was communicative, personable, down to earth and incredible day of the wedding. I cannot recommend her enough. She made sure the ceremony and reception space looked incredible and checked-in on us all night! Our guests are still texting/ calling us to tell us how lovely they thought she was and how good the food was. Overall, we would absolutely use this wonderful company and thank you Sierra and CE team!
We chose Culinary Excellence to cater and coordinate our wedding in September. We worked mainly with Samantha and we were so so happy with our decision. Even though we had to plan our wedding out of state, Samantha made the entire process so easy. After our first inquiry, Samantha was so helpful with providing us tons of examples, information, that we knew exactly what menus and services they could provide with the catering. She also did a zoom consultation to go over everything since we were out of the area. It also made things much simpler for us given that they provide coordination services as well! Instead of trying to coordinate with multiple vendors ourselves, we had Culinary Excellence provide our florals, rentals, lawn games, catering, etc. Samantha was also our day of coordinator and helped with rehearsal as well. The entire time leading up the wedding date, Samantha was very responsive to any questions that we had come up. When the wedding date finally arrived, everything provide by Culinary Excellence was perfect. In addition to the dinner service, Samantha was able to pull together exactly the vision that we had for the decor/ florals and ambiance. After the event we received compliments from our guests that the event staff were very professional and very organized; the food was excellent; and florals were beautiful. Our wedding was better than anything we could have imagined, and Culinary Excellence and Samantha were key to making that happen. We definitely recommend them for their services!!!
Culinary Excellence catered and serviced our wedding in June. Amazing. They were on a list of preferred vendors, and they were the first, and only, vendor we met with and had an über-delicious sampling. We made our minds up on the spot. Sierra was our project manager and she's amazing. Unflusterable and understanding. Our needs were basic, but specific. She nailed all of it- including checking in on me during cocktails and hors d'oeuvre before ceremony to make sure I was eating! When we walked in The Brazilian Room before anyone arrived, it was wonderously beautifully set up and arranged. All of our guests, family, friends , loved ones marvelled at the entire wedding. Oh? And price? Extra-reasonabLe including all the extra service and attention. I'll definitely use Culinary Excellence again- for any event! Thank you Sierra!
We had our wedding August 4th at the Brazilian Room. We reached out to Culinary Excellence because they were a preferred vendor at this venue. We are so happy we did. Right off the bat Sierra was super helpful and responsive. She scheduled a tasting with us and right away we knew that we wanted to work with her and the rest of the staff. Our big day couldn't have been pulled off without them. The food was excellent! The staff was attentive, and Sierra was the best. She set everything up just the way we wanted it. If our guests had a question or needed something she took care of it right away. The prices are more then competitive. If you are looking for a caterer I highly recommend Culinary Excellence, you won't be disappointed.
Culinary Excellence went above and beyond for our wedding! Samantha deserves a special shoutout for making everything perfect. We truly appreciate all the communication and effort she put in the months and weeks leading up to the event to make sure our vision came to life. From the delicious food to the stunning decor, they made our day truly unforgettable. Highly recommend!
Restaurantji Recommends
We are so happy that we worked with Culinary Excellence for the catering and floral arrangements for our wedding at the Brazil Room. They took the suggestions we gave them at our initial meeting and made them even better. On the day of our wedding we were able to relax and know that we were in good hands. The staff were friendly and easy to work with (especially Sierra) and made sure that we had everything we needed for our wedding to go off without a hitch.The day of, the food was delicious, the dinner and venue staging was beautiful, and the floral arrangements were gorgeous. Everyone was very impressed by the service, and so were we. Our dinner was a buffet, but they served the two of us at our table and one of the staff members even found us after we came back from photos and made sure we got a tray of the appetizers.
I cannot say enough amazing things about this company. Samantha was the lead for my wedding and she did such an incredible job there are no words to describe! She attended to every detail and went above and beyond what we asked and what I expected. She is experienced, passionate, and very professional. They bring a wonderful crew to staff their event, they were prompt, everything was set up and taken down on time, everything I requested was there and more. The owner of the business is the kindest man and very much cares about quality. He is such an accomplished and incredible man but all the while very humble and approachable so kind to talk to. He was nice enough to take the time to meet with my mom and I when we came up to do a tasting. Throughout the entire process they were easy to communicate with, flexible, knowledgeable, and resourceful! They really are a One-Stop shop if you're going to have a wedding or any kind of party for that matter. You can count on them to really deliver and do it all at a very reasonable price which in the Bay Area nowadays it's hard to come by! And last but not least, the food the food the food! I had multiple guests come up to me and say it was the best wedding food they ever had and I 100% agreed! The selection they have is incredible and can be customized by culture not only that but the quality of the ingredients and the sophistication of the selection is exquisite! We had the Thai chili shrimp, spanakopita, sausage filo wrapped bites, steak with the chimichurri sauce. Those were just the appetizers alone, there was so much more for this sides and the main dish it really was decadent and really met everyone's needs. They have so many great side options that even if you don't have for example on all vegetarian wedding or all vegan wedding plenty of options for everybody to have good protein filling meals with this election they have. Wonderful job Culinary Excellence thank you so very much to Samantha and her team, you will forever be in my heart
We found them at a Wedding Fair put on by the East Bay Park District. Their boneless short ribs became the bar that other caters there had to exceed -- none did. It ended up costing more for that entree choice, but it was worth it. They later had their own Wedding Fair at their office where we got to sample many of their other food offerings which was nice and many were quite tasty. We ended up contracting them to cater our wedding. They handled the food, linens, plates, glasses, flatware, table centerpieces, ceremony arch, flowers, pretty much everything except liquor that we purchased ourselves at BevMo and dropped off at their office the week prior to our wedding. Being pretty much a one-stop-shop helped greatly with wedding planning that we did ourselves. The day of the wedding, they set everything up nicely, received our cake via courier from an outside bakery, and everything went off smoothly. Working with Sierra was great as she was responsive and accomodating. Hopefully, I'll never have a need to get married again, but I'd use them again if I did.
Sierra and her team were so professional and went above and beyond at our wedding. We are so happy with what we got for our money on our wedding day. They really deliver on their promises, and are able to problem solve in the moment (we had a special type of venue that required some heavy lifting!). Plus, the food was so amazing and they offer so many choices to choose from (we did do a tasting beforehand). Sierra was so responsive to my many questions in the months leading up to our wedding, and the chefs were able to cater to our dietary needs (gluten free and dairy free options). Thank you again to the entire team for making our wedding a complete success and providing yummy food and great service!
Food was amazing and consistently so. This is the 2nd Board week supported by Culinary Excellence and the feedback from the Directors gets better each time. They are on site early for setup and discreet while doing so. Very accommodating and flexible with menu suggestions. No matter what is served, guaranteed to taste delicious! Please use them for your next corporate event and you will never regret the choice! (Next time will take photos to share)