Celebrating Without Breaking the Bank : CATERING : Taking Work Out of Holiday Parties

If you feel like throwing a party, but don’t relish the time and stress involved in planning, shopping and preparing the food this holiday season, there are a number of professional caterers willing to take care of the nitty-gritty for you.

Here are some of the possibilities:

Didier’s Haute Cuisine

Cardiff, 942-4801

Didier’s Haute Cuisine (formerly Top Toque Catering) specializes in “quality and experience without astronomical prices,” according to chef Didier Petak. Petak and his wife Debbie, a native of Rancho Santa Fe, have been catering in San Diego and Palm Springs for the past seven years. The Parisian-born Petak’s culinary background includes stints at several of Paris’ most prestigious food establishments including Taillevent, Pre Catelan, and the Crillon Hotel. The pair met while Debbie Petak was studying cooking at La Varenne Cooking School in Paris.

Petak characterizes his cooking style as “French cuisine prepared with local products and adapted to American tastes.”

Home delivery is a new concept for the classically trained Petak. “This way, you don’t have to shop or cook and you can plan anything your heart desires,” he says. “We help our clients with custom-developed menus. We can even work with the hostess’s own recipes so she can say she prepared them herself.”

In addition to a light version of classic French cuisine, Petak and his crew serve up an eclectic mix of dishes from around the world. Cream of Carrot Soup with Fresh Ginger, Louisiana Pan Fried Crabcakes, Frozen Grand Marnier Souffle, French Buche de Noel (Yule Log) or a traditional English Christmas Pudding to serve 10 are among the many selections. The food is delivered in special packaging with detailed reheating instructions.

Decorated trays and beautiful food baskets are also available upon requests. “It’s a do-it-yourself kit without the extra cost of full-service catering,” says Petak. Didier’s Haute Cuisine delivers to corporate offices or to private residences within the North County for a nominal fee. Full-service catering is also available.

Volante’s

16089 San Dieguito Road

Fairbanks Ranch. 759-5959

Tom Rohde, in-house chef at Volante’s, said the specialty market and catering service concentrates on simplicity and good, home-style food.

Rohde, a graduate of the New York state-based Culinary Institute of America, did stints at local upscale eating establishments and spent two years at the Horton Plaza Market before moving “north” to Rancho Santa Fe. The young chef has been instrumental in developing Volante’s menus since the store opened in January. Rohde also tries to purchases most of his products locally.

“It’s important to support local businesses,” he said, adding that Volante’s aim is to provide surrounding communities with full-service catering facilities as well as a specialty market.

“The store carries a full line of groceries from gourmet items to staples. An impressive meat department features Stirling Silver beef, Shelton’s hormone-free poultry and a wide array of fresh seafood, much of it locally caught. The in-store bakery and small cafe attract their fair share of regulars during the day. The chef also prepares a daily selection of soups ranging from chicken gumbo to bisques and chowders.

Rohde has planned a holiday menu for 8 people which will include roast turkey with apple sausage and sage dressing, candied yams with Jack Daniels syrup, mashed potatoes and gravy, orange cranberry chutney, pumpkin pie and Dutch apple pie for $139. Volante’s will deliver the full meal a day ahead of the holiday, along with detailed reheating instructions.

Celebrity Prime Foods

2558 Roosevelt Street

Carlsbad. 729-6629 or 800-244-6629

Shopping has gone high-tech at Celebrity Prime Foods. In 1987, Mark Gombar saw a need for an extra measure of convenience for food buyers: home deliveries of premium, restaurant-quality foods directly to shoppers’ homes.

“The trend is to entertain at home,” says Gombar, a native of Massachussetts where such a buying service is more common than on the West Coast. “This shop-at-home food service eliminates impulse-buying. It saves on time when convenience is critical.”

What began as a three-person operation five years ago has grown to more than 260 employees throughout Southern California. To service its 20,000 home-shoppers, the La Habra-based company operates out of five regional offices throughout Southern California. Celebrity Foods relies on purveyors from around the country for their top-of-the-line meats, pastas and vegetables and even for their desserts.

Prime Angus beef, flash-frozen filets of orange roughy, giant Gulf shrimp, individually wrapped chicken breasts, New York steaks, filets mignons and specialty entrees and hams all figure on Celebrity Foods’ extensive order form. New York cheesecake, German chocolate cake and chocolate mousse cake are neatly frozen by the slice.

Customers calling Celebrity Foods will be visited by one of the company’s sales representatives at their convenience. “We’re their supermarket,” explains Keith Kantor, vice president and regional manager for Celebrity Foods.

The customer chooses from an extensive choice of food and other regular grocery items, which are then delivered via refrigerated trucks on a pre-set schedule directly to the consumer, who is billed monthly.

So popular is the service that Celebrity Foods “has grown 50% to 100% each year, even in times of recession,” said Gombar. “We could grow even faster if we could find the sales staff.”

Several thousands customers in the North County are already availing themselves of this unusual home-delivery service. A three-month minimum order of food is required.

Greentree Grocers

3560 Mount Acadia Boulevard

Clairemont. 560-1975.

Greentree Grocers in Clairemont specializes in gourmet natural foods.

Hormone-free meats, organically grown vegetables, and even a full line of natural cosmetics are only a sampling of the products on display in the large and airy store. “We like to offer alternative goods in our grocery line,” explains store manager Terry Shirley, adding that Greentree attempts to fulfill the general public’s increasing request for chemical-free products.

From dates, to apples, baby lettuce and mushrooms, all must be grown according to strict organic methods to find a place on Greentree’s produce shelf. “We now have growers grow to our specifications,” says Shirley. “We have local farmers, as well as farmers in the Imperial Valley and some in Central California.”

Lamb, beef and chicken must also follow stringent organic rules to be sold in the store. The same applies to deli items from tofu-salads to nitrate-free cold cuts. Bakery items include potato rolls, wheat-free bread, eggless or sugarless pies and cakes, and breads made from organically grown grains. An array of grains, cereals and bulk spices line a full wall at the back of the store; an extensive selection of frozen ravioli, tortellini and other pasta is available in bulk in the freezer department.

Kelley Worrall, Greentree’s catering manager, has planned menus to please meat lovers as well as vegetarians.

In addition to the broiled chicken with Indonesian peanut sauce and the New York steak with peppercorn cream sauce, Greentree serves up festive gourmet vegetarian dishes like mushroom ravioli in cilantro cream sauce, vegetable lasagne or vegetable curry or a classic turkey meal (with 72 hours’ notice.)

A “Breakfast-in-Bed” service includes delivery of the morning paper and a fresh floral bouquet. Breakfast trays, box lunches and gift baskets, can also be delivered for a nominal fee--with or without musicians or other live entertainment.