Power lunch: catering to discerning tastes: local caterers provide unique fare for office functions.

AuthorLavrakas, Dimitra
PositionAlaska Business Power Lunch

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Catering has matured into a big business in Anchorage, where niches exist for private airplanes, oil companies and even pharmaceutical representatives. All of them have special needs and caterers here have learned to hone their cuisine to clients' discerning tastes.

In most workplaces when a meeting is called, all personnel can look forward to a box of donuts and coffee that lead them into a glycemic downward spiral.

Enter savvy local caterers who know the nutritional value of tasty and hearty food to fuel minds for better brainstorming and decision-making.

A tiny, sunlit cafe on Northern Lights near Arctic Boulevard is home to Crostini Cafe and Catering LLC, owned by husband and wife Vincent and Beverly Ryan.

Between the two they have years of experience in the food industry.

"I worked in a coffee bar when I was 12 in Naples, Fla.," Vincent said. "Then I saw the back of the house (kitchen), and saw they were having fun."

He earned a degree from the Culinary Institute of America in New York and has been in the food business ever since, and all over Alaska.

"We came up for summer jobs in 1981 and stayed," he said.

He'll often put out a sample plate of some new concoction he's trying for feedback, and it's one of the small gestures that makes customers feel welcome, as well as an excellent way to test a new item without sending it out for potentially bad reviews.

What also brings customers back, Beverly said, is consistency and quality ingredients.

"When they order for us, they know what they're getting," Beverly said. "And our timeliness of service and variety of choices," Vincent added.

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Salads are big part of the business, Beverly said. They offer combination choices of soup and salad, salad and sandwich, of a mini gourmet sandwich and soup.

Crostini's specialty trays begin with, what else but crostinis--little baguettes with fresh basil pesto, Parmesan cheese and diced tomato. There's also fresh fruit platters, cowboy sushi, ginger prawns, eggplant pate and yakitori skewers of boneless chicken and bell peppers.

Strict attention to detail is what makes Crostini's plates leave the kitchen with unmistakable flair.

"We check every plate to make sure it goes out with a special touch," Vincent said.

And sending any food out of a kitchen and to an office is a very special challenge in Alaska.

At Olympic Sandwich and Catering on 36th Avenue and Arctic Boulevard, Annelise Hansen, who is married to Jens--yes that Jens of nearby Jens' Restaurant, runs this business.

On a frigid, snowy day, she was in the kitchen overseeing preparation of a luncheon order for 24 at BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. Twenty-four white boxes sat under the heated hood being filled with a selection of hot sandwiches on fresh-baked baguette rolls--French or Greek dip, Reuben, Croque Monsieur or vegetarian, a salad, and a home baked Toll House cookie.

The kitchen staff had everything well in hand under the direction of Chef Hugo Avilar, his assistant Pedro Alvarez, salad-maker Jose Salcedo, and Araceli Ledesma, who is usually in charge of...

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