Culinary Excellence Catering

We decided to go with Culinary Excellence for our wedding at the Brazilian room and it was the right choice. Samantha helped us budget and plan the wedding and her and the staff executed the event flawlessly. From set up to the amazing food and breaking down the event. The staff was so kind and made sure my wedding was the best day of my life. I would highly recommend them! They are professional and executed the best wedding!

Imagine your dream wedding and then imagine it even better and that is what the Culinary Excellence team brought to life for our wedding. They brought our wedding vision to life in a way that we did not even know was possible and I cannot thank them enough for making the most special day of our lives so unforgettable. I want to give a HUUUUUUGE shoutout to Samantha. She was the most amazing person to work with, she answered all of our questions (and we had many!!) throughout the whole process and made everything truly so seamless for us. She was extremely detail-oriented and always made us feel like all of the little details we were wanting were captured in the most beautiful way. The other team members we worked with were Sierra and Jodie and they were so incredible as well. Truly the entire team brings your entire vision to life. We worked with Culinary Excellence in a very large capacity for our wedding (catering, decor, florals, coordination) and I HIGHLY recommend working with them in this way if you want your day to go just as you envision it. I cannot say enough how perfect and seamless they made our day. The food was absolutely incredible as well and everyone was RAVING about the appetizers, dinner, and desserts. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the Culinary Excellence team for making all of our wedding dreams come true. Your team is incredible and I could cry thinking about how perfect you made our day!!

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!!

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

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.

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 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.

Our 60-person wedding was catered by Culinary Excellence. My husband and I cannot express our appreciation enough. Hiring CE was one of the best decisions we made in planning the wedding. We were originally going to hold our wedding in 2020 and had hired CE in 2019 after an excellent tasting. Then we postponed twice due to COVID and finally had the wedding this past weekend. The food is hands-down some of the best I've had ANYWHERE. Without question, best food out of all weddings I've been to, including weddings at 5-star hotels. We had hand-passed appetizers for the cocktail hour and for the reception, plated meals--salad then for the main course, choice of beef filet, salmon, and veggie lasagna. All our guests seriously gushed about the food AND the beautiful presentation. For this alone, you should hire CE for your event. Jessica packed us two extra meals to enjoy the next day, which was such a sweet touch, and we had them for breakfast. If I could eat CE's food every day I would.What makes CE more special is the service and thoughtfulness. We communicated with Jessica for the past 3 years and she has been so understanding and patient through all the postponements and changes we had to make. Having the wedding hang over our head all these years is stressful, but trying to make it happen during a pandemic / new variant surge is truly the worst experience. Jessica was so accommodating, responsive, and kind, despite a million emails I sent her about every little thing. The fact that the CE staff were all masked and honored our request to self-test prior to the wedding (we provided the rapid tests) alleviated our stress about COVID greatly. It's been almost a week and luckily nobody got sick (we and all guests tested too).Plus, CE has a lot of other services and rentals: decor, florals, day-of coordination, furniture, etc. We got parasols, cocktail tables, table runners, and candles from them and thought the prices for all very affordable (our day-of coordinator agreed). In fact, the pricing for everything is really reasonable, especially considering the above-and-beyond service and food. There is absolutely, absolutely no reason to hesitate hiring CE. I cannot recommend them strongly enough. If I had to do any event in the Bay again, they'd be the first one for me to reach out to. Thank you so much, CE. You spread so much joy with your help and expertise!

Jessica and Samantha worked to create the perfect menu for my mother's funeral reception. They were able to accommodate dietary issues to ensure all attendees would have something to satisfy their palate. I highly recommend them.

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!