Catering menus

Start with the format, then choose the food

The format decides more about your event than the dishes do. It sets how many staff you need, how much table space the room must give up, how long guests queue and how the price per person is built. Pick the format that fits the room and the schedule first, then choose dishes inside it.

A 9:00 a.m. board meeting and a 6:00 p.m. product launch may have the same 40 guests, but one wants coffee and food that can be eaten at a boardroom table in ten minutes, and the other wants small bites people can hold with a drink in the other hand. The menus below are organized around those real situations.

The seven formats at a glance

Full price lists, fees and worked budgets are on the pricing page.

How to read the dietary codes

Every dish on every menu page is tagged. The codes describe what goes into the recipe, and we mark conservatively: a dish served with bread or pita is not tagged gluten-free, even if the rest of the plate is.

• halal: a meat or poultry dish made with halal-sourced meat. Vegetarian dishes are tagged veg or vegan instead. Ask us how halal is handled for your event and we will confirm the details in writing; see halal catering.
• vegan: no meat, fish, dairy, eggs or honey. See vegan and plant-based catering.
• veg: vegetarian, may contain dairy or eggs.
• gf: no gluten-containing ingredients in the recipe. Prepared in a shared kitchen, so read gluten-free catering before ordering for a guest with celiac disease.
• df: no dairy ingredients.
• nf: no nuts or peanuts in the recipe. This is not a promise of a nut-free kitchen.

For a mixed group, the simplest approach is to build the order so that the main dish in each box or on each buffet line covers several codes at once. A chana masala with rice, for example, is vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free in one pan.

Seasonal in Ontario means specific months

The menus list dishes we can cook all year, with seasonal swaps marked where a local ingredient is worth waiting for. In practice that means asparagus and rhubarb in May and June, Ontario strawberries in June, sweet corn, peaches and field tomatoes from late July to September, apples, squash and root vegetables from September through winter, and greenhouse cucumbers and peppers year-round.

If your date is fixed, we will tell you which dishes are at their best that week and which ones are better replaced. A tomato and burrata starter in February will be made with imported tomatoes, and it is usually worth choosing something else.

Minimums, lead times and mixing menus

Drop-off menus (breakfast, boxed lunches, hot lunch buffets and delivered grazing boards) start at 15 guests and need 48 hours notice so ingredients can be ordered and labels printed. Staffed menus (canapés, stations, plated dinners) start at 40 guests. Weddings need 6 months notice, and peak Saturdays from June to September go first.

Formats combine well. A common Toronto wedding pairs passed canapés during photos with a plated dinner and a late-night station. A conference day might use breakfast, a hot lunch buffet and an afternoon grazing board. Each part is priced per person, so the quote shows exactly what each part costs.

Not sure which format fits? The buffet vs plated and boxed lunches vs platters comparisons walk through the trade-offs, or send us your date and guest count and we will suggest two options.