Food Tasting

chiboo9

Our food tasting for the reception is this Saturday and I'm honestly not sure what to expect. Our reception is at a country club that does their own catering. We've aleady decided on a chicken dish, as it's all that we could afford.  Can you enlighten me on what to expect during the tasting? Or what's a norm for tastings?

- They have several chicken dishes, so will we get to sample all and pick from one?

- Would it be a complete meal, or sample portions?

- Appetizers are included in the package; would they have them there too for tasting?

- Wine is unlimited during dinner. Actually, it'll be an open bar throughout the night. Do we get to choose which red and/or white wine to serve?

What questions should I be asking? I guess I've been so immersed with other wedding planning that I haven't thought much about reception food and drinks. Any help and advise is greatly appreciated! TIA!

lyndausvi

Tastings vary from place to place.
- They have several chicken dishes, so will we get to sample all and pick from one? Sometimes they will let you pick from all the options.  IME however, they will ask you for your tops picks and you will pick from that.  No point in making up a chicken cordon bleu if you do not eat ham.  
- Would it be a complete meal, or sample portions? depends on the venue.  Ours was full meals and it was way too much.   My DH is a chef and chefs like to impress other chefs, so think there was a little of that going on.   
Anyway, since you are tasting a lot of different dishes a lot of times they just do smaller portions.  Or have one dish to be shared on the table.  Whatever the case I've never left a tasting hungry.
- Appetizers are included in the package; would they have them there too for tasting?  Ours were.  We gave them a list of apps we interested in and then picked from those.  Again, there is no need to taste all the apps if there are some you are clearing not going to pick.
- Wine is unlimited during dinner. Actually, it'll be an open bar throughout the night. Do we get to choose which red and/or white wine to serve? again it depends on the venue. 
  Some venues have packages that include a house wine, but they only have 1 type red or wine house wine.  So no choice, unless you are upgrading.  Other venues have more house wine choices to pick from.   So again, it just depends on your package and what the venue has to offer.

librababy

how was your tasting?  We had our first official tasting today with a potential caterer (I actually went to TWO tastings today though LOL.)

As each caterer/venue is different I can only answer how it was for us.  We are going with an outside caterer, so we were able to get a free tasting with no obligation to sign a contract.

- They have several chicken dishes, so will we get to sample all and pick from one?

For our caterer, we had a meeting 2 weeks ago and we picked which menu package we liked best with a few tweaks (which was one of the cheapest...  a stuffed chicken breast). That was the menu we tried today.

- Would it be a complete meal, or sample portions?

It was a complete meal so we got an idea of what the serving would look like for our guests.  At first I thought it looked like a little bit of food but I was so full, I could barely finish.

- Appetizers are included in the package; would they have them there too for tasting?

We had a first course/appetizer in the package: cream of broccoli soup.  We were able to try that as welll (it was as if it was the wedding... we got everything they would serve in our menu package).

- Wine is unlimited during dinner. Actually, it'll be an open bar throughout the night. Do we get to choose which red and/or white wine to serve?

Not sure about this... but all questions will be answered and fine details will be rehashed so you will have a change to get all your questions answered.

The second 'tasting' I went to with Fmil.. it wasn't a real tasting as it wasn't the items on my menu but I got a taste for the chef's cooking. I was able to try the 2 options they have for cakes as well, which was nice since I haven't done any cake tastings yet.